Jean-Baptiste Marty / Credits: Thibaut Durand / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 6:18 a.m., March 13, 2024
This is a phenomenon that is increasingly worrying the authorities.
In Lyon, violent clashes are increasing between small far-left groups and ultra-right entities.
According to information from Europe 1, no less than 14 armed confrontations took place in 2023, double compared to the previous year.
In Lyon, armed clashes between small extremist groups worry the authorities.
According to information from Europe 1, 14 violent confrontations occurred in 2023, including five in the month of December alone.
In detail, five took place on the sidelines of demonstrations and nine were organized, in confidential places, by the leaders of these small groups.
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“Paramilitary training”
On the far left, entities like Lyon Antifa or La Fosse aux Lyon dominate the anti-fascist movement.
Movements like Lyon populaire and Les Remparts posters place themselves on the identity side.
Inevitable clashes, according to several police sources, as "the fight, anchored in the DNA of these local groups, is essential for the militants, both in its ideological aspect and in the context of territorial survival".
The confrontations, often of incredible violence, like the fifty individuals who attacked an association premises, near the Saint-Georges church, in the Vieux Lyon district, last November, are carefully prepared. .
For this, “paramilitary training” is held in specially designed premises.
This is particularly the case of the Apogée boxing gym which would be an identity landmark considered as a “rear base” by the authorities.
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“Landmark bars”
Premises declared as bars also serve as landmarks for these small groups.
Thus, the Guillotière district is home to certain bars claiming to belong to the anti-fascist movement, and certain members of which meet regularly to defend drug traffickers in the neighboring streets when the police arrive.
Identity bars are also identified.
La Traboule would thus be a landmark for ultra-right activists.
These small extremist groups also massively invest in universities, where they recruit their new faces.
To combat these clashes, dissolutions are increasing, like that of the Antifascist Group Lyon and Around, known by the acronym GALE, last November.
Other files are on the table of Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
This is the case of Remparts, some members of which belonged to Génération Identitaire, a group dissolved in March 2021.
But despite these efforts, members keep in touch and form new groups under other acronyms.
Thus, GALE was recreated under the name Lyon Antifa at the beginning of last February.
Faced with this phenomenon, the police intend to increase their vigilance in the coming months.