Anasse Kazib

Anasse Kazib was born in 1987 in Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise) into a family of five children. He grew up in Sarcelles. His grandfather served as a Moroccan rifleman during World War II. His parents are originally from Essaouira and arrived in France in the early 1970s. Kazib worked as a courier for chemical laboratories before becoming a railway worker. In 2012 he became a signalman at the marshalling yard in Le Bourget. At the time he earned around €1,800 per month including bonuses. His wife has also been employed by the SNCF in the Paris Nord region since the mid-2000s; they married at age 21 and have two children. His father worked as a signalman at the SNCF and was employed on a contract basis; as a Moroccan national he could not obtain the same civil-service status as his French colleagues, a discriminatory situation later recognized in legal proceedings in 2018 relating to the "Chibanis" case. ==Trade union involvement and political activism==

Early activism Kazib says he was raised in a family with left-wing allegiances, voting either for the Socialist Party or Lutte ouvrière. He first took part in a demonstration during the 2005 riots and again the following year in protests against the "contrat première embauche" while still at lycée. He demanded the resignation of SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou. ==Presidential pre-candidacy (2021–2022)==

Kazib declared a "pre-candidacy" for the 2022 presidential election on 4 April 2021 during an NPA (New Anticapitalist Party) political council. The candidature was rejected by the majority branch of the party amid internal tensions between a radical faction (including the Courant communiste révolutionnaire) and a more moderate faction open to rapprochements with La France Insoumise. The Courant communiste révolutionnaire left the NPA in June 2021, depriving the party of about 300 activists; the NPA ultimately presented Philippe Poutou as its candidate. After launching his own campaign Kazib was targeted by a campaign of online harassment and death threats from the extreme right. In February 2022 racist posters appeared at Sorbonne where he had been invited to speak. Kazib complained of marginalization in media coverage: between 1 January and 18 February 2022 his total airtime across radio and television amounted to five minutes, according to ARCOM. Arrêt sur images noted his frequent absence from televised lists of candidates ranked by sponsorship numbers. On 9 February 2022 Kazib was scheduled for a Q&A at Panthéon-Sorbonne's Centre Panthéon. Following prior intimidation campaigns by the extreme right, several hundred students gathered in support before the conference; organisers moved the event outdoors because the allocated amphitheatre was too small. The rally drew more than 450 people and included support from Assa Traoré, Bruno Gaccio and SOS Racisme. The university denounced the gathering and Kazib was summoned on 18 February by the public prosecutor for "holding a demonstration on public highways without declaration". Kazib officially submitted his candidacy for the presidential election on 16 February 2022. He collected 122 sponsorships from elected officials, including 87 mayors and 23 city councillors.{{cite news|last=Guémart|first1=Loris|title=Anasse Kazib, 122 parrainages, candidat-fantôme à la télé Kazib presented a platform described as communist, revolutionary, ecological, anti-imperialist and opposed to discrimination, with an emphasis on youth. Supporters included Assa Traoré, journalist Taha Bouhafs, sociologist Kaoutar Harchi and transfeminist activist Sasha Yaropolskaïa. However, his organisation did not obtain the required number of sponsorships (it collected 160 validated sponsorships) and he was not accepted on the official presidential ballot. ==Legislative campaign (2024)==

After the dissolution of the National Assembly on 9 June 2024, Kazib stood as a candidate in the early legislative elections for the second constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis under the Révolution permanente label, with Elsa Marcel as his substitute. He obtained 3.67% of the vote in the first round. ==Positions and legal proceedings==

In October 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel, Kazib shared footage of fighters crossing the Israeli border and declared his "support for the Palestinian people standing up to that bloodthirsty state that is Israel". He became the subject of an investigation for "apologie du terrorisme" (apologising for terrorism). Kazib argued that the French state sought to criminalise any solidarity with the Palestinian people. By April 2025 the prosecution had decided to proceed and Kazib was scheduled to be tried for his pro-Palestine social media posts; his case was raised internationally and mobilised petitions and support from numerous public figures who characterised the prosecution as part of a broader crackdown on Palestine solidarity activism. ==References==