Banned demonstrations: Action française will finally be able to hold its conference on Saturday

"The execution of the order of the prefect of police of May 12, 2023 is suspended," said the administrative court of Paris in an order sent to AFP, a few hours before the holding of the conference.

The police prefecture told AFP to "take note" of this decision of the court which does not give its reasons.

It had published this decree on Friday, after a circular from the Minister of the Interior to ban several "demonstrations and gatherings of the ultra-right", following the controversy related to the demonstration in Paris on May 6 of ultra-right activists often face hidden and wearing Celtic crosses.

"Our colloquium will take place! First victory for this great weekend," reacted on Twitter the Action française, movement classified to the far right.

This conference, entitled "La France en danger", is scheduled to begin at 14:30 pm in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris.

The organisation had applied to the administrative courts for summary proceedings, an urgent procedure when the complainant considered that there had been a "serious and manifestly unlawful infringement" of a fundamental freedom on the part of a State service.

The police prefecture banned a total of six gatherings organized this weekend in Paris, including five at the call of movements classified as far right, arguing a risk of disturbance to public order.

Among them, there is another event at the initiative of the Action française, a demonstration in tribute to Joan of Arc convened Sunday morning from the Place de l'Opéra (ninth arr.).

The organization said it had also filed an injunction with the Paris Administrative Court against the ban. "We will have the answer this (Saturday) evening," a spokeswoman for the movement told AFP.

A march of the military association "Place d'armes" Saturday afternoon was also banned, as well as a rally Sunday morning in front of the statue of Joan of Arc declared by the far-right movement "The nationalists", planned at the same time as the demonstration of the Action française.

The group's leader, Yvan Benedetti, also told AFP he had filed an administrative appeal against the banning order.

A sixth demonstration, of "yellow vests", which was to take the same route as that of "Place d'armes", was also banned by the prefect of police.

Legally fragile

These orders are the first translation of the instruction given Tuesday to the prefects by the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin to ban henceforth any demonstration "of the ultra-right or the extreme right".

The minister's instruction was taken in reaction to the controversy sparked by the demonstration last Saturday in Paris of the "May 9 Committee".

These activists, dressed in black and often masked, displayed black flags marked with the Celtic cross. They were demonstrating to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the death of a far-right activist, Sébastien Deyzieu, who died in an accident in 1994.

In the orders issued Friday, the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez justifies the ban in particular by the fact that the gatherings are part of a "particularly tense context" after "the controversy aroused by the demonstration organized by the Committee of 9-May".

Demonstrators hold flags during a demonstration called by the fundamentalist Catholic organization Civitas in front of the statue of Joan of Arc, May 8, 2016 in Paris © FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP/Archives

He also points to the "risk of disturbances to public order", while several of these demonstrations have prompted calls for counter-rallies by organizations "close to the radical left" and that a mobilization of the "antifascist movement" that could "try to physically attack" ultra-right activists is possible.

The prefect also mentions, in some decrees, the "risk of clashes" between far-right activists themselves, recalling that some had already fought during the previous edition of this tribute to Joan of Arc.

But Gérald Darmanin's decision has also led to controversy, with many deeming it legally fragile.

Questioned Wednesday by AFP, the professor of public law Serge Slama, had estimated that such a measure could not be taken "in a general and absolute way".

"Objective elements, to support the risk of disturbing public order" must be produced on a "case-by-case basis", he explained.

© 2023 AFP