Paris: the prefecture of police bans a meeting in tribute to a figure of the extreme right

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: ARTHUR N. ORCHARD / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 16:24 p.m., May 21, 2023

The police prefecture banned a meeting Sunday afternoon in Paris in tribute to the theorist of the extreme right identity Dominique Venner, who committed suicide ten years ago to the day at Notre-Dame. "There are serious risks that, on the occasion of this tribute, statements inciting hatred and discrimination (...) are held," justifies the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez in his order, consulted by AFP. The police headquarters also recalls the sentencing of Dominique Venner to 18 months in prison for his membership of the Organization of the Secret Army (OAS), a clandestine terrorist group opposed to the independence of Algeria.

The meeting, organized by the Iliad Institute on the theme "Dominique Venner, the Flame is maintained", was to be held Sunday from 15 pm to 19 pm at the Pavillon Wagram, in the west of Paris. "At 14:30 p.m., the administrative court had not yet ruled on the summary liberty filed by the Iliad Institute," said in a statement this think tank of the identity movement. "It is unprecedented, in a democracy, that a symposium organized by a cultural association is prohibited from a public meeting organized in a private place," said the organization, announcing a double appeal on the merits before the administrative court and the Council of State.

"Freedom of expression has not existed for a long time"

Around 15:00 p.m., about fifteen police officers stood in front of the room, closed, noted an AFP journalist. A small crowd that came to attend the symposium quickly dispersed. "Freedom of expression has not existed for a long time", "it is under surveillance", we heard in its ranks. Former paratrooper, activist in the 50s to the neo-fascist movement Young Nation then member of the OAS, Dominique Venner, specialist in firearms, killed himself with a pistol on May 21, 2013 at the age of 78 in front of the altar of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

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President of the National Front at the time, Marine Le Pen had expressed her "respect" for Dominique Venner by believing that her gesture "eminently political" was an attempt to "wake up the people of France". At the beginning of May, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had asked the prefects to ban in the future all demonstrations "of the ultra-right or the extreme right", after a controversy sparked by a parade in Paris on May 6. The police prefecture banned six gatherings last weekend. A colloquium and a demonstration organized by Action française were finally able to take place, after a green light from the administrative justice.