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Meknes – With France’s 2022 presidential elections around the corner, Anasse Kazib, a French-Moroccan railroad worker, labor rights activist, and Marxist, has entered the race for the Elysee Palace.
Anasse Kazib was born in 1987 in Sarcelle, the northern suburbs of Paris, to a Moroccan family that emigrated to France in the 1970s to meet the country’s demand for cheap labor.
In July, Kazib, who is an employee of France’s state-owned railroad company (SNCF), announced his “pre-candidacy” for the 2022 presidential elections by launching a “digital campaign” to mobilize support and collect valuable signatures from the electorate.
Following the launch of the campaign, Kazib says he has been targeted with “racist tweets and death threats,” according to a statement he posted on July 8.
The 34-year-old labor rights activist is well-known to the public. He first rose to prominence in 2018 with a feted mobilization against the SNCF reform, and he has since increased his public profile with regular appearances in the media.
He was first invited to speak to various media outlets as a unionized staff representative at Sud Rail, a prominent federation of French trade unions. He then routinely appeared on Radio Monte-Carlo’s radio show “Les Grandes Gueules” before being fired after a year and a half stint as a social criticism-oriented pundit.
A skilled conversationist with a strong sense of repartee, Kazib has participated in many passionate debates on both radio and TV. One of his most famous is the fierce December 2019 exchange he had with the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari on Cyril Hanouna’s “Balance ton post!”, one of France’s most popular television shows.
The young unionist’s bid for the 2022 presidential elections has generated heated controversy. The candidate broke away from the traditional designation of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), announcing his “pre-candidacy” and causing widespread discontent in the party’s leadership circles.
Kazib invoked his commitment to “Permanent Revolution” to announce his rupture from the NPA, denouncing the party’s “turn to the right, towards a policy of compromise with the institutional left.”
The French-Moroccan militant has long advocated struggle against “social and racial disparities” on his official account on Twitter.
On his campaign website, Kazib said he intends to “represent in this presidential election the millions of shadow workers, with often precarious contracts.” The zealous candidate also said he aspires to stand for “those in essential sectors such as health, education, transport or mass distribution, millions of proletarians from immigrant backgrounds.”
Channeling the anti-establishment spirit of the “Yellow Vests,” the French-Moroccan activist turned politician vows to stand by the workers who “rose up for their rights against injustice and precariousness, the workers who since 2016 have been fighting against the reforms of the power in place.”
