Les Remparts could soon experience the fate of its predecessor, Génération identitaire. A procedure to dissolve the small ultra-right Lyon group, long demanded by local elected officials, has been initiated by the Ministry of the Interior, AFP learned this Thursday from a Source close to the matter, confirming information from Le Progrès.
Minister Gérald Darmanin had previously indicated that his services were “working on it”, but without setting a deadline. “A notification was sent Wednesday evening to the Remparts, who have ten days to defend themselves,” said this Source.
At the end of the adversarial period, the dissolution must be adopted by the Council of Ministers. Furthermore, the same letter was sent to the La Traboule and Top Sport Rhône associations, which manage the eponymous bar and the Agogé combat sports hall, meeting points for ultra-right activists in the Old Lyon district.
Calls to hatred and violent demonstrations
The capital of Gaul is one of the strongholds of this movement and has between 300 and 400 activists, according to local authorities. Bridgehead of these circles, the organization Les Remparts was built in 2021 on the ashes of Génération identitaire, dissolved by the authorities for inciting discrimination, hatred and violence.
The small group, which for its part claims 900 members, presents itself on its social networks as a “house of identity” and a “civilizational rampart”, regularly organizing “rooted aperitifs” at Traboule.
The procedure initiated on Wednesday accuses the Remparts, which do not have association status, of being “a de facto group and its members of using the premises of the two other associations”, explained the Source close to the matter. It is based on calls for hatred against the LGBT, Muslim or foreign community, made by some of its members, on their presence at violent demonstrations or on legal proceedings, according to this Source.
The small group had recently been implicated for having taken part in the organization in November of a far-right gathering resembling a punitive expedition following the death of young Thomas, stabbed in Crépol in the Drôme.
Despite a ban from the prefecture, hundreds of people gathered in Lyon to chant identity slogans, such as “French people wake up, you are at home here”, while videos relayed by the organization showed masked individuals. brandishing a banner “immigration kills” and shouting “Islam outside Europe”.
The Remparts were in the sights of several long-standing local elected officials, but calls to dismantle them had become more pressing in recent weeks, particularly after the arrest in mid-February of several men suspected of having taken part in an attack of the ultra-right in November against a pro-Palestinian conference in Old Lyon. The same day, the former spokesperson for the Remparts, Sinisha Milinov, was sentenced to prison for a racist attack at the beginning of the month leaving a bar, with another young man.
“Our warnings have been heard”
In mid-February, the environmentalist mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet, who has been calling for the dissolution of the small group for two years, as well as seven deputies from the Rhône region, had urged the executive to dissolve several ultra-right groups active in the city, namely Les Remparts but also the popular Lyon, as well as their two headquarters, the La Traboule bar and the Agogé sports hall.
The Lyon councilor welcomed the start of the procedure this Thursday. “I thank the Minister of the Interior for this decision. Our alerts have been heard,” reacted Grégory Doucet in a message https://twitter.com/Gregorydoucet/status/1785967093453664480. “Let us remain vigilant in the face of the risk of reformation of the extreme right,” he added, however, calling for “national unity to fight against these enemies of the Republic.”
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin indicated at the beginning of December that “the police and intelligence services are working” on the dissolution of the organization, without however providing a timetable. Noting that freedom of association is “very strong legally in France”, “you have to be very strong to go to the Council of Ministers” to present such a dissolution, with “certain elements” in your pocket, he justified .
However, he assured that he remained “very hard against the ultra-right, as we are very hard against the ultra-left”, citing in particular the groups Division Martel and La Citadelle, which have since dissolved. “I have never had a hand that trembles, both to put an end to Salafist mosques and radical Islamic associations, and against the ultra-left or the ultra-right which is also dangerous, with thwarted attacks,” he also declared.
