Ultra-right demonstration in Paris: beginning of controversy, the prefecture of police justifies itself

5/8/2023, 1:25:31 PM

Highlights: The demonstration in Paris on May 9 was not banned by the French government. The police prefect said the demonstration did not pose a risk to public order. The demonstration was held to mark the 29th anniversary of the death of a far-right activist in Paris. The event was organized by a group of activists known as the GUD (Group of Union Defense) The GUD is a French association of anti-fascist and anti-racist activists. It was formed in the wake of the 1994 death of the Gud's leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The demonstration Saturday in Paris of several hundred ultra-right activists, which had not been banned, aroused strong criticism on Monday on the left, leading the police prefecture to justify itself...

On Monday, on Twitter, the socialist senator of Paris David Assouline notably challenged the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, considering "inadmissible to have let 500 neo-Nazis and fascists parade in the heart of Paris". "Explain yourself!" he urged in his tweet.

Also on Twitter, the spokesman of the PCF Ian Brossat, elected from Paris, for his part ironically in the middle of the day, writing: "the pans are obviously more dangerous than the sounds of boots ...".

Since the adoption of the controversial pension law, bans on demonstrations have multiplied in France to avoid "breakdowns" against President Emmanuel Macron and members of the government.

The Paris police prefecture (PP) justified in a long statement the non-ban of the ultra-right demonstration.

According to the authorities, nearly 600 activists of the May 9 committee had demonstrated Saturday in the sixth arrondissement of Paris to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the death of a far-right activist, Sébastien Deyzieu, who died accidentally in 1994. These demonstrators, dressed in black and often masked, displayed black flags marked with the Celtic cross and chanted, at the end of the rally, "Europe youth revolution", the slogan of the GUD (Group of Union Defense), noted AFP.

The PP stressed that "insofar as this demonstration had not caused, in previous years, any excesses or disturbances to public order, the prefect of police was not justified in issuing a prohibition order against him".

She argued that last January, the order prohibiting the prefect of police from a torchlight march of "Paris pride" (a well-known association on the far right), had "been suspended" by the judge. The administrative court had considered, noted the PP, that "the alleged antecedents of disturbances on the sidelines of the gatherings organized by the same collective in previous years + did not (allow) on their own to establish a risk of disturbing public order sufficient to justify the ban on demonstrations".

"The demonstration of May 6 was the subject of an adapted supervision by the police, to avoid any risk of overflow or clashes," added the prefecture of police, which had taken an order authorizing the recording of images by drone.

She promised that "any criminal act found during this demonstration or that the subsequent exploitation of the images would identify will be the subject of a report to the judicial authority".