France, April 4 -- Bally Bagayoko, 52, of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, was elected mayor of Saint-Denis in the first round of municipal elections on 15 March.

The Frenchman born to Malian parents and brought up in the neighbourhood was almost immediately targeted by racist disinformation and remarks, some aired on one of the country's most watched news channels.

Demonstrators gathered on the steps of Saint-Denis's town hall, a town of 150,000 is one of France's most diverse, with a large immigrant population. Music bands, trades unions and associations joined the demonstation.

How effective is France's fight against racial discrimination?

"We come to state firmly and definitively our visceral attachment to the values of t...