Roused by a violent news story and “inspired” by the riots in Dublin, small far-right groups in France want to mobilize on the streets as the political far right exploits the general climate to win votes.
Dublin, Thursday evening: Authorities say around 500 far-right rioters are attacking an immigrant neighborhood in retaliation for a knife attack on children rumored to have been carried out by an attacker of foreign origin.
Romans-sur-Isère, in the south of France, Saturday evening: Around a hundred masked ultra-right activists march through a sensitive neighborhood from which some of the suspects in an attack in which a young man died on November 19th came from Crépol, a neighboring village.
“Even though the number of activists is not comparable, there was some kind of inspiration. French activists paid particular attention to the events in Dublin, drawing a parallel with the Crépol affair that shocked the country, notes right-wing extremist researcher Marion Jacquet-Vaillant.
The Crépol tragedy has been making the front pages of the French news for more than a week: in a violent brawl after a dance, 16-year-old high school student Thomas was stabbed and eight other young people were injured. Village. It involved young people, some of whom came from the “hot” district of La Monnaie de Romans.
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“It is up to the courts to dispense justice. Not the French themselves,” said government spokesman Olivier Véran on Monday in Crépol after the incidents on Saturday evening in Romans and castigated “the ultra-right factions driven by hatred and resentment.”
Six people were sentenced to six to ten months in prison for taking part in the ultra-right march organized on Saturday evening. These men, aged between 18 and 25, were all convicted of “participation in a group formed with the intention of preparing violence” or “humiliation”.
“When we come with sticks, we do not come to defend a cause, but to attack,” explained prosecutor Vanina Lepaul-Ercole.
Public outrage
In Dublin as in Romans, “there are similarities in the processes used: violent mobilization on social networks, rumors about the ethnic origin of the suspects,” emphasizes Romain Fargier, a specialist in right-wing extremist influencers on the Internet.
The small groups mobilizing on the networks “take advantage of public outrage and generate hashtags.” They are inspired by the American alt-right,” notes Mr. Fargier. “This right-wing extremist sector, which used to be confidential, is increasingly appearing in the public space,” he adds.
Media such as CNews, the channel where the former right-wing extremist polemicist and unsuccessful presidential candidate Éric Zemmour worked, dedicate debates and programs to him.
Le Journal du Dimanche, whose editorial director is on the far right, publishes the first names of North African origin of the Crépol suspects on its front page.
Politicians are not left out.
As soon as the first facts became known, tweets and statements from the right and right-wing extremists linking this act to immigration multiplied.
They spoke of “scum”, “anti-white racism”, “everyday jihad” or even, as Marine Le Pen, head of the Rassemblement Nationale, assumed “an organized attack emanating from a certain number of criminal suburbs”.
climate
This is not the first time that the far right in France has seized on news stories, evoking national emotions.
In October 2022, the murder of a 12-year-old girl, Lola, tortured and killed by an Algerian living illegally in France, was exploited to the extreme to denounce a link between immigration and crime.
The far right had also promoted and even organized demonstrations to denounce the project for a reception center for asylum seekers in Saint-Brévin (West). The mayor resigned after his house burned down.
“There is a generally favorable climate” for right-wing extremist violence, estimates Arsenio Cuenca, a researcher at the Practical School of Advanced Studies.
“Certain ideas that we once encountered on the political fringes are now completely trivialized, such as the theory of great replacement,” he emphasizes.
“The extreme right is leading us down the road of civil war in Europe and in France,” denounced communist leader Fabien Roussel on France Inter on Monday.
“We have to put things in perspective,” says Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, pointing out that the ultra-right only brought together about a hundred people in Rome on Saturday.