About 350 people, including some masked individuals dressed in black, attended the symposium, entitled "The France in danger", which began around 15:15 and ended around 19:00 under heavy police surveillance in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris, noted an AFP journalist.

"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, less than three hours before the meeting.

In the early evening, the administrative court also authorized the holding of a demonstration of the Action française in tribute to Joan of Arc Sunday morning in Paris. On the other hand, the court rejected the appeal of the small group classified to the extreme right, "The nationalists" of Yvan Benedetti, which also challenged the ban on a rally at the same time on Sunday.

The Prefecture of Police had published several orders Friday, after a circular of the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin to prohibit any gathering "of the ultra-right or the extreme right", after the controversy aroused by the demonstration in Paris on May 6 of ultra-right activists.

L'Action française and Les nationalistes had applied to the administrative courts for an interim relief procedure, an emergency procedure when the applicant considered that he was in the presence of a "serious and manifestly unlawful infringement" of a fundamental freedom on the part of a State service.

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

Among them: a march of the military association "Place d'armes" Saturday afternoon, as well as a demonstration of "yellow vests", which took the same route.

The "yellow vests" gathered despite the prohibition order, "told AFP the prefecture of police of Paris, specifying that a "dispersion" had taken place. A total of 62 people were fined for participating in a banned demonstration.

Legally fragile

According to Olivier Perceval, secretary general of Action française, interviewed by AFP during the conference, the demonstration of tribute to Joan of Arc has been banned only twice before: "the first time by the Germans during the war, the second time by Joxe", Minister of the Interior at the time, after the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras in 1990.

The political director of Action française François Marcilhac speaks at a symposium entitled "La France en danger", on May 13, 2023 in Paris © Thomas SAMSON / AFP

In the orders taken Friday, the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez had justified 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" last Saturday in Paris.

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.

The prefect of police also pointed 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 had also led to controversy, many considering 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