Ultra-right: Action française can finally hold its conference

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: GAUTHIER BEDRIGNANS / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 16:26 p.m., May 13, 2023

A symposium organized Saturday afternoon in Paris by the royalist movement Action française finally takes place, the justice having suspended the ban pronounced Friday by the prefecture of police after an instruction of the Ministry of the Interior targeting several demonstrations of the extreme right. "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 Gerald Darmanin to ban 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.

350 people present, two arrests

"First victory for this great weekend," reacted on Twitter the Action française. About 350 people, including some masked individuals dressed in black, were present for the symposium, entitled "The France in danger", which began around 15:15 p.m. in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris, noted an AFP journalist. Two people were arrested on the sidelines of the rally for "wearing hoods and gloves," said the police headquarters.

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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 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. 52 people were fined for participating in a banned demonstration.

Sunday's demonstration in tribute to Joan of Arc banned

Another demonstration of the Action française planned for Sunday morning, in tribute to Joan of Arc has been banned. The organization said it had also filed an injunction with the Paris Administrative Court. "We will have the answer this (Saturday) evening," a spokeswoman for the movement told AFP. "Joan of Arc will be honored whatever happens," Olivier Perceval, secretary general of Action française, told AFP at the conference.

>> READ ALSO - Ultra-right: Paris police prefecture bans five gatherings this weekend

According to him, the demonstration had only been banned twice before: "the first time by the Germans during the war, the second time by Joxe" after the desecration of the Jewish cemetery of Carpentras in 1990. "We were banned for two years, but we still found a way to lay a wreath," he said. Another rally is planned for Sunday morning in front of the statue of Joan of Arc, organized by "The Nationalists". The group's leader, Yvan Benedetti, a far-right figure, also told AFP he had filed an appeal.

"A particularly tense context"

In the orders taken 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" 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 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" which 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.