“There, they are unleashed”, in Lyon, the comeback of the far right worries the authorities
Provocations by the authorities, demonstrations with fists, and the latest action: “ratonnades” against supporters of the Moroccan team in the streets of Lyon, Wednesday evening, after the qualification of the Blues for the final of the World Cup. The Lyon far right has been talking about it for several weeks. Violence that challenges elected officials and authorities.
Thirty hooded individuals converging towards the city center. Young people armed with sticks, dressed in black, with a clear desire to fight. Racist slogans and violent gestures. Last night, the extreme right came out in the streets of Lyon and came to spoil the party.
After the victory of the French team against Morocco, in the semi-finals of the World Cup, its activists are suspected of having wanted to attack supporters of the Moroccan team, as is also the case to Nice, Paris or Montpellier.
Testimonials, videos, are linked on social networks. Difficult, however, to accurately describe the details of the event. The police only confirm that they succeeded in quickly repelling these violent individuals and arresting two far-right activists.
“These people had scores to settle,” says Thomas Rudigoz, Renaissance MP for the first constituency of the Rhône. For the elected official, the resurgence of far-right actions is “obvious” in the capital of Gaul, in addition to being “worrying”.
Provocations by the authorities, demonstrations with fists, beatings, the fall in Lyon was marked by the multiplication of violent and claimed actions. On December 8, members of the Remparts Lyonnais group infiltrated the procession of the Flambeau climb, defying the prefectural ban. December 5, two left-wing activists were attacked while towing in Vieux Lyon. On November 26, a demonstration against violence against women was reportedly disrupted by ultra-right activists from Lyon. And the list is still long, as we can read in an article from the Mediacite website.
At the moment, we are facing a disturbing outburst, it is not just anecdotal. All occasions are good to strike against immigrants, against feminists, against left-wing activists
Hubert Julien-Laferrière, ecologist deputy of the Rhône
“Right now, we are facing a disturbing outburst, it is not just anecdotal. Every opportunity is good to strike at immigrants, against feminists, against left-wing activists”, regrets Hubert Julien-Laferrière, ecologist deputy from the Rhône and signatory, at the end of November, of a letter asking the government “for an in-depth investigation into the actions and violence of ultra-right groups in Lyon”.
“There have already been violent acts in the past, but for a few weeks now, we feel that there are neo-fascists who are clearly organizing themselves, gaining power and leading a great a number of “increasingly radical actions”, adds Thomas Rudigoz, who also asked him to come of age to take the Lyon case seriously.
Because if the type of action is not new, “we note an acceleration but also an escalation in the violence of these acts”, affirms Mohamed Chihi, assistant to security at the City of Lyon “It is a situation which we all have to be mobilizers”.
So how can this comeback and renewed activity be explained? “It’s natural, there are hollow phases and there are more active phases. Since the presidential elections and the candidacy of Zemmour, we are clearly in a dynamic of strong activism, ”explains Laurent Burlet, who has been investigating the far right in Lyon for many years for the media Rue89Lyon.
Is it a new generation of activists who want to show off, or is it, as some scholars think, the lack of trained politics after the presidential elections?
Laurent Burlet, journalist Rue89
The journalist, who referenced most far-right actions in one article, ensures that the multiplication of violent and close actions in time is not a first in the history of the neo-fascist movement. “The great novelty, however, believes Laurent Burlet, is that all these actions and violence are the act of people who are more difficult to identify, we have less readability, the actions are rather done with a hidden face, with similar demands but without the cluster buffer. The boundary is much more blurred between the different currents of the extreme right”.
Willingness to exist, to show off, to make propaganda. For Thomas Rodigoz, the reasons for this intensification of far-right actions are numerous. “They are trying to recruit young people to continue their abuses,” adds the MP.
Laurent Burlet remains more cautious. “The desire to occupy the field is obvious, after, is it a new generation of militants who wants to show itself, or is it, as some researchers think, it is the absence of rewarded policies after the presidential elections that encouraged more violent actions, there are several working hypotheses…”
Whatever the reasons and motivations of the far right, “on the impression that Identity Generation is being reborn from its ashes”, regrets Thomas Rudigoz. The government was however dissolved by the movement in March 2021, like Bastion Social before it.
So are dissolutions enough? Today, a new small group, the Remparts Lyonnais use the same premises as the previous organization.
“The advantage of dissolutions is that it prevents the leaders from using the communication tools of this group, it creates a loss and the loss of a “brand”, in a way. But the activists have been discreet for the time to reconstitute themselves, and then there they are again very active, ”explains Laurent Burlet.
“What encourages them is the impunity of their actions”, regrets Hubert Julien-Laferrière. “We must find sufficient means of rights”. Like using another legal tool, “the reconstitution of the dissolved league”, provided for by the penal code.
“Police services need to work with local communities to see if the identity generation is not rebuilding itself. There, we are talking about prison and very high fines, ”says Thomas Rudigoz.
Another possible legal response is the closure of the premises used in Vieux Lyon. This is what the majority of elected officials from Lyon demand. “As you know, the far right continues to promote an ideology to which our city, capital of the Resistance, cannot remain indifferent. These small groups, beyond a nauseating word, multiply the violent acts in our streets. The very existence of premises, such as La Traboule or L’Agogé, allows them to pursue their sinister purpose and that is why I have asked the President of the Republic to close them”, reacted the ecologist mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, at the opening of the city council this Thursday, December 15.
“We will not be able to improve the situation in Lyon without closing these places which serve as a base for these movements, but we must also identify violent individuals, those who disturb public order, in order to be able to prosecute them and bring them before the courts,” adds Mohamed Chihi, from the city of Lyon. “And then penalties must be pronounced, penalties which demonstrate that there can be no impunity,” concludes Hubert Julien-Laferrière.
According to information from the daily Le Progrès, one of the organizers of the demonstration banned on December 8 will have to be compared before the Lyon Criminal Court on March 21, 2023.