“Well done for your fight. You know I'm very close.” It was with these words, spoken Tuesday during a conference, that the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, congratulated the president of the Némésis identity collective. Words that have provoked the indignation of deputies of La France insoumise, Clémence Guetté regretting in particular the support of the tenant of Beauvau “to a violent and racist far-right collective”. Faced with this outcry, Bruno Retailleau's entourage assured AFP that the minister “answered a question on the fight against the ultra-left and the explosion of anti-Semitism” and it is these two points “that he said he shared” with Nemesis. Franceinfo presents this group to you.
An identity and xenophobic collective
The Némésis collective, named after the goddess of vengeance, was founded in 2019. Known for its punchy actions during demonstrations, this identity group, which claims to be feminist, multiplies provocations and xenophobic and anti- -immigrants. It became known on November 23, 2019, when several of its members held up signs evoking in particular the “foreign rapists” during a march against sexual and gender-based violence organized in Paris by the feminist movement #NousToutes.
This far-right collective, which has a strong audience on social networks, claims 200 members, according to The Worldand attributes Immigrants and Muslims are responsible for the majority of sexual violence. It was he who called, in September 2024, for a gathering to denounce the murder of Philippine, a 19-year-old student, by a 22-year-old Moroccan, already convicted of rape and awaiting deportation to his country of origin.
A very media-focused president
The president and founder of Némésis, Alice Cordier (a pseudonym), is the media figure of the identity collective. She regularly appears in the media of the Bolloré group (Europe 1, CNews or C8) and became known by participating in the show “Touche pas à mon poste” hosted by Cyril Hanouna or in “Grandes Gueules” on RMC. She has long presented herself as “identity feminist”. “Today, I would just say right-wing feminist”she said to Monde in November.
It was to her that Bruno Retailleau spoke on Tuesday. “After years of humiliation, bank accounts blown up, social networks censored, violence by far-left activists, incriminating articles, I was congratulated by our Minister of the Interior”Alice Cordier reacted on X. Very active on social networks, she is described as “a political communications professional” by researcher Magali Della Sudda, author of New Women of the Rightinterviewed by the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris).
Punchy and provocative actions
The collective has a trademark: disrupting demonstrations by brandishing provocative or xenophobic messages. He recently burst into the greeting ceremony of the environmentalist mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot. Two activists attacked the mayor and deployed a “banner with the following text: 'Foreign rapists welcome'”according to the press release from the municipality, which filed a complaint for “provocation of discrimination and racial hatred”. Already in April 2024, two other members of Némésis had brandished signs during the Besançon carnival on which were written “Foreign rapists outside” et “Free us from immigration”.
-Activists from the collective also disrupted a rally against the far right in Paris, three days before the first round of the legislative elections on June 27, 2024. According to the website StreetPress, co-organizer of the event, they held up signs to against three candidates from the New Popular Front accompanied by a hooded security guard. The director of the collective, Alice Cordier, had also opened a kitty to pay “a plane ticket” to the French journalist of Moroccan origin, Nassira El Moaddem, before pleading “humor”reports Liberation.
Proximity with the National Rally
If the far-right collective is not affiliated with the National Rally, the fact remains that Némésis maintains ideological links with the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen. He also supported him during the early legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
In reaction to the police custody of an activist from Némésis, elected officials of the RN in Burgundy-Franche-Comté, including the deputy Julien Odoul, for example brandished a sign “Foreign rapists outside in the middle of the regional council in April 2024. More recently, Alice Cordier held a conference in Fréjus called “Fighting Islamic Entrism” in the presence of Mayor David Rachline (RN).
The StreetPress site also reports that far-right senator Stéphane Ravier, former member of the National Rally and then the Reconquest party, handed in in February 2024 “a medal for an act of courage to an activist” from the Némésis collective.
