The Drôme prefecture announced, Monday, November 25, that it would ban a series of gatherings planned for next weekend in memory of young Thomas, killed a year ago in the village of Crépol, for fear of “significant disturbances” to public order.
A small ultra-right group called “Justice for Ours” called for a meeting on November 19 in Romans-sur-Isère, a year to the day after the murder, but ultimately postponed its call until November 30, after protests from the close to the young man. The collective announced Monday noon on social networks “the filing of a summary liberty order” to contest the prefecture's order.
For several days, its members have been distributing leaflets in Romans-sur-Isère and the surrounding area calling for people to come together in memory of Thomas and another young man, Nicolas Dumas, a player in the same rugby club as the teenager, killed in early November in front of a discotheque in the department, which they describe as “victims of immigration”.
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Political “recovery”
Denouncing the political exploitation of these two deaths, left-wing associations or organizations wanted to organize a counter-demonstration. “This recovery has been the subject of numerous leaflets, letters and public declarations for several weeks, raising fears of significant unrest and ideological clashes in Romans-sur-Isère, Bourg-de-Péage, Crépol and Valence”writes the prefecture in a press release.
Consequently, the prefect of Drôme decided to ban these two demonstrations, and more broadly all gatherings, from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Sunday in these four towns, having slogans linked to the two deaths or the reason “the fight against racism, hatred, francocide, insecurity or immigration”.
The death of Thomas, a 16-year-old high school student stabbed during violence at the end of a village dance, had inflamed the political class, with the right and the far right seizing the subject to denounce growing insecurity in the countryside. coming according to them from the sensitive suburbs. A few days after the murder, ultra-right activists organized a demonstration resembling a punitive expedition in the Monnaie district of Romans, where some of the fourteen people indicted came from.
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