What is the GUD, this small group founded in Paris and which Jordan Bardella will dissolve if it arrives in Matignon?

While strolling through the Eurosatory Defense Exhibition, this Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), Jordan Bardella assured that he had “no form of tolerance” towards “those who engage in violence”. The president of the RN thus announced that, if he were elected Prime Minister after the legislative elections, the “ultra-left and ultra-right” organizations would be dissolved, confirming that the Union Defense Group (GUD) would indeed be part of them. But what do we mean by GUD and who is behind this movement ultra-right born in Paris and at the origin of the FN?

Elements of response with Nicolas Lebourg, historian and researcher at the Center for Political Studies of Latin Europe (Cepel) at the University of Montpellier, specialist in the far right and director of the work Violence from the political margins from the 1980s to the present (Riveneuve, 2017).

Paris news : The GUD was born at the end of the 1960s at the Parisian University of Assas as a student union. What do we know about the beginnings of this small ultra-right group?

Nicolas Lebourg: Although the GUD came into existence in late 1968, its origins are not known. not just a reaction to May-68, and his ideas were quickly disseminated throughout France. They date back to the failure of the attempted coup d’état of April 1961, which had caused a break among neofascist youth with the terrorist path. This breakup led to a split of the Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN) and the birth of the Occident Movement in 1964. This movement brought together those who, on the one hand, refused to give up activism and wanted to confront left-wing students, and who, on the other hand, rejected the racialist turn of their organization. They considered that neofascism was a thingbut that neo-Nazism was another.

The organization is indeed surrounded by legends and paradoxes. An assumed activist movement, she escaped dissolution of organizations to which it was linked in 1973, 2002 and 2019. Despite its chaotic character, the GUD managed to create Ordre Nouveau (ON) in 1969, the only neofascist movement to have reached 2,500 memberswho then founded the National Front (FN) in 1972. Self-dissolved in 1981, but resuscitated regularly, the GUD benefited, from 1986, from a singular media echo despite its infragroup character.

Paris news : The GUD is known for its violent actions: who are the targets of its attacks?

NL : The first years forged the legend of the GUD, in particular because of his uninhibited violence against the left. This violence is also directed against the bourgeoisie, and is even intended to be ethically revolutionary. This point can be examined quantitatively. As part of the Violence and Militant Radicalities program (VIORAMIL) of the National Research Agency, 82 acts of violence by the GUD were identified between 1986 and 2017, based on press articles and police archives.

The left remains the main enemy of the GUD, but no longer constitute the almost exclusive object of its action. THE clashes with other nationalists still represent a significant part of the GUD’s activism, demonstrating the difficulty in managing its activists. A notable proportion of acts of violence are directed against the press and the policeparticularly in the context of the Manif pour tous demonstrations, highlighting a practical opportunism in their specific actions.

Paris news : How can we explain that political leaders, including those of the RN, wish to dissolve the GUD?

NL : It has been several months since the rumor of a possible dissolution GUD was circulating. The context explains it: the raid on Romans-sur-Isère, following the murder of Thomas in Crépol, had revealed a notable escalation of the part of the far right activistincreasingly attracted by the temptation of terrorism, with 13 attacks foiled since 2017. It should be noted that, although Jordan Bardella is committed to dissolving the GUD, in law, he is the President of the Republic which has this prerogative, according to article 212-1 of the internal security code.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon -.