Zemmour meeting: two men indicted after the attack on SOS Racisme activists

Europe 1 with AFP 9:22 p.m., December 16, 2021, modified at 9:24 p.m., December 16, 2021

Two men suspected of being involved in violence against SOS Racisme activists during the meeting in early December of far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), were indicted for willful violence , said the Bobigny prosecutor's office on Thursday.

Indicted for aggravated willful violence

Both were indicted for aggravated willful violence and willful violence in assembly and placed under judicial supervision.

On December 5, during Eric Zemmour's first campaign rally in Villepinte, several SOS Racisme activists, who had exhibited "No to racism" t-shirts, were attacked with fists and throwing chairs by support of the polemicist.

The use of video surveillance and the work of the investigation services have made it possible to identify several alleged perpetrators.

Several media had also identified Marc de Cacqueray - Valmenier, as one of the alleged attackers.

The latter has already been sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence in January 2019 for violence committed during a demonstration of "yellow vests" on December 1, 2018.

Eleven complaints filed by SOS Racisme activists

Eric Zemmour had declared Wednesday about the Zouaves and the violence which marked his meeting: "I do not control all the people who come, I do not know these people. They were there, not there, justice will decide". The presidential candidate, however, considered that the violence denounced was "epsilonesques, marginal", accusing "people of SOS racism" of having "provoked" them.

Eleven complaints were lodged by SOS Racisme activists out of the 12 present at the meeting. Among them, nine presented themselves to the forensic units which issued medical certificates establishing ITTs ranging from 0 to eight days, the prosecution said. Gérald Darmanin announced on Sunday that he had initiated the procedure for the dissolution of the Zouaves, heirs of GUD, the former far-right student union.

The Zouaves Paris (ZVP) are not constituted in association.

They are more "a de facto group" of ultra-right activists "already engaged before", according to researcher Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, doctor in political science who devoted her thesis to the identity movement.

These activists are starting to call themselves Zouaves Paris "at the start of 2018", according to Ms. Jacquet-Vaillant.

The small group "brings together former members of the GUD (now dissolved), neofascists as well as identitarians from other groups", according to the historian specializing in the far right Nicolas Lebourg.