• Friday evening, nearly 150 people demonstrated in Lyon to pay tribute to the young Lola, killed in Paris.

  • While the rally was peppered with anti-immigration and xenophobic slogans, local elected officials demanded the dissolution of the "Remparts", an ultra-right group suspected of being at the origin of these excesses.

  • For political scientist Jean-Yves Camus, the dissolution measures have a limited effect.

    Groups and activists "do not just disappear into thin air", he stresses.

“The extreme right is ultra-violent, we must act.

" Five days after the wild demonstration in Lyon in tribute to the young Lola, during which nearly 150 individuals sang xenophobic songs, the four Nupe deputies from the Rhône asked the Ministry of the Interior "that measures be taken to curb these repetitive phenomena”.

Like, for example, the dissolution of the groups involved.

Or the closure of places hosting the activities of ultra-right activists.

This is also the request made by Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon who addressed the President of the Republic at the start of the week.

At a time when the "Les Remparts" collective, suspected of being behind Friday's rally, has indicated that it "would not give in to pressure", the question is whether these measures can really curb their action.

“The militants did not disappear into thin air”

“In Lyon, as elsewhere, there is an illusion to be lifted.

The groups that have been dissolved, whether among the identitarians or on the side of the Social Bastion, have not disappeared in nature.

Activists, either, ”answers Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist, specialist in nationalism and extremism in France and Europe and director of the Observatory of political radicalism at the Jean-Jaurès foundation.



In the Vieux-Lyon district, La Traboule (associative bar) and Agogé (identity sports hall) “are still operated by associations”, he underlines.

“Even if they no longer have a link with Génération identitaire, since the movement has been dissolved, the potential exists.

Visibility exists.

“In Aix-en-Provence, “the local version of the Social Bastion has again opened a local in the city center and publishes a small magazine”.

“Dissolution measures are reaching a limit.

They had an effect but this effect is not of the order of annihilation”, observes Jean-Yves Camus.

What else to do legally?

“Not much,” replies the political scientist.

Once the dissolution has been pronounced, proceedings can be taken for reconstitution of the dissolved league.

".

This has already happened in the Rhône.

Yvan Benedetti, former president of the French Work and Alexandre Gabriac, former leader of Nationalist Youth, whose party was dissolved in 2013 after the Clément Méric affair, were sentenced to fines for continuing their activities.

Nothing more.

“Neither the suspended prison sentence nor the fine is a sufficient deterrent”

“Most of the time, when the procedure is successful, the results are zero.

Neither the suspended prison sentence nor the fine are sufficiently dissuasive, ”raises Jean-Yves Camus.

The proof is, Yvan Benedetti became the spokesperson for the French Nationalist Party, reactivated in 2015. A party which, each year in September, pays tribute to Pierre Sidos, the founder of the French Work.

Alexandre Gabriac, more discreet, joined the fundamentalist Catholic movement Civitas.

"Beyond the conviction for reconstituting the dissolved league, and when politically we have done everything, there is nothing else possible than to initiate procedures piecemeal, in the name of the disorder in the public order, continues the researcher.

Today, these groups represent nothing or nothing more politically.

We are rather faced with a problem of maintaining order.

But on Friday in Lyon, there was no violence, no projectile throwing or trash fires.

No arrests took place.

In summary, no disturbance to public order even if the chanted slogans struck and aroused indignation.

“When these groups feel that they have the possibility of demonstrating with their faces uncovered without being worried, they rush into the breach.

Once that's done, it's very difficult to get them to go back,” emphasizes Jean-Yves Camus.

And to conclude: “Perhaps at one point, the phenomenon was not taken to its proper measure…”

Justice

Murder of Lola: An investigation for "racial provocation" opened after a demonstration of the "ultra right" in Lyon

Company

Murder of Lola: The mayor of Lyon calls for the dissolution of the ultra-right Remparts group

  • Xenophobia

  • Ultra-straight

  • Lyons

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

  • Murder of Lola