A rally to "fight against the far right and its racist, sexist and Islamophobic ideas" will take place this Thursday (12 p.m.) in front of Lyon 3 University, on the initiative of Unef Lyon.
In April, several incidents of racism and harassment shocked students at this well-known right-wing campus, starting with swastikas tagged in toilets.
In this tense context, the President of the University of Lyon 3 Eric Carpano undertook, on Tuesday in front of a promotion of the faculty of history, to "report to the public prosecutor" the facts and racist, anti-Semitic, negationist and sexist.
"I refuse that, in the national political context that everyone knows, our university can become the political instrument of extremist elements or animated by hatred of the other and because of a religion, racism, anti-Semitism, or negationist overtones.
Our university, which bears the name of Jean Moulin, will do everything possible to combat them.
The students of the Manufacture des Tabacs received this email on April 14 from Eric Carpano, president of the University of Lyon 3. Its reputation as a right-wing campus is not new, especially because of the courses given in the 2000s by Bruno Gollnisch, then a major figure in the Front National.
Faced with numerous reports of far-right acts for a month in his establishment, Eric Carpano undertook to "report to the public prosecutor" the facts and speeches of racism, anti-Semitism, negationism and sexism “which are not opinions but crimes”.
He confirmed Tuesday his determination, in front of the students in 2nd year of history license, to prosecute the incriminated students.
According to Mathilde Amar Amghari (19), a member of this promotion, the facts began at the start of the school year in September: “Some transferred to a Discord chat from our promotion pornographic photomontages of veiled women and multiple racist comments.
A video of a Nazi rally was also airdropped in class.
“Many students felt abandoned”
The young woman is formal: “As soon as it is a question of Islam, colonization or homosexuality during a course, bad taste jokes burst out”.
One episode will particularly "shock" this promotion on April 4, when a student puts a scarf around his face in the amphitheater to make fun of veiled women.
"It was too much humiliation" for Mathilde Amar Amghari, who immediately denounces "this awful behavior" to the teacher and then openly points to the Lyon Cockade.
This far-right student association, which appeared on Lyon campuses in 2020, was systematically cited by the twenty people we interviewed on this subject.
Five years after the dissolution of the Union Defense Group (GUD), very established in the university landscape in the 2010s, La Cocarde crystallizes this far-right push observed in Lyon 3. Secretary General of the National Union of Students of France ( Unef) in Lyon, Manon Moret summarizes the situation.
Many students contacted us because they felt abandoned by the rise of these acts of racist and sexist bullying and harassment.
The administration of Lyon 3 has long insisted on the importance of freedom of expression, and not on the fact that we are faced with activists with nauseating ideas, who have been able to act with complete impunity.
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Swastikas and hate messages found in college toilets
So much so that the Lyon student union, which is organizing a rally this Thursday (12 p.m.) in front of the Manufacture des Tabacs (Lyon 8th) to "fight against the far right and its racist, sexist and Islamophobic ideas in our universities", thus concludes its press release: "The university must urgently take its responsibilities and no longer let the far right make Lyon 3 its playground".
A 24-year-old student, Elies shares this fear: “We feel that the far right tends to relax in Lyon 3 in the current context of the presidential election.
La Cocarde even recently scuttled a student demonstration against racism to transform it into a demonstration against “anti-white” racism.
Beyond the promotion of 2nd year of law, most students at Jean Moulin University have seen swastikas and hate messages in the establishment's toilets this month, before they be cleaned after one week.
“We wonder how far it can go”
"It's amazing and so shameful to come across such messages," sighs Maéva (20), an LLCER license student.
We all know the right-wing reputation of Lyon 3, but we had the impression that it had evolved in the right direction.
These tags reinforce a feeling of insecurity, and even more so for people who are discriminated against.
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the far right pros of lyon 3 you are a disgrace pic.twitter.com/lDPnAZjvGd
— em🦋 (@dontworryemilie) April 15, 2022
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"Frankly, when you see the demonstrations of force of an association like the Cockade and its attempts at intimidation, you wonder how far it can go," says a history student, who prefers to remain anonymous.
La Cocarde points to “a thought police” and “Bolshevik methods”
In a press release published on social networks on Saturday, La Cocarde Lyon, which called for Marine Le Pen to vote in the second round of the presidential election, defends itself against all "these tensions".
Considering themselves “victims of exactions on the part of the extreme left”, its members denounce “slander”, “wokism”, “a thought police” and even “Bolshevik methods”.
The association has just written another statement to justify its occupation of an amphitheater of the Manufacture des Tabacs, Wednesday at 6 p.m.
She asks the president of the university to "break with the culture of witch-hunting put forward by the UNEF".
Press release of 04/20/2022: AG Cocarde Lyon at @UJML pic.twitter.com/fhVDfhhyy1
— La Cocarde Lyon (@cocarde_lyon) April 20, 2022
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Finally, is Lyon 3 University such a special example in France?
“No, what is happening there is not an isolated case, indicates Imane Ouelhadj, president of the UNEF.
Tags and harassment are increasingly recurrent throughout the country, even in faculties known to the left.
We worry about the safety of students when we see the emergence of these associations wanting, as they say, "to purify the temples of Islamo-leftism".
Already at the heart of the news since Tuesday due to the cancellation of the law ball, because of blacklisted students, Lyon 3 University is experiencing a spring of controversy.
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