At nightfall, this Friday, December 8, nearly two hundred people gathered on the market square, in Quissac, to participate in a “republican gathering”, at the call of Michel Sala. The deputy (Nupes-LFI) of the 5e Gard constituency was keen to react, and quickly, to the distribution of neo-Nazi leaflets in this small town located around forty kilometers from Nîmes. Serge Cathala, the mayor (without a label), did not come.
According to the gendarmerie, around fifty anti-Semitic and homophobic leaflets, on which appear swastikas and the eagle of the IIIe Reich, were deposited, at the end of November and the beginning of December, in the mailboxes of two housing estates in the town. “White man, are you tired of seeing Jews destroy your country through immigration, queer-LGBT degeneration and war? Join us to restore the domination of the white race in Europe,” said the message signed by the People’s Racial Awakening Department. A QR code to scan and an Internet address refer to the Dempart website (for participatory democracy), where the steps to follow are detailed: “Photocopy your leaflets (black and white) in office stores (pay in cash). (…) At night (ideally, from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.). Never in your town…”
These posters seem similar to those found in May in La Neuville-Chant-d’Oisel (Seine-Maritime), near Rouen, where three men aged 22 to 25 were sentenced, on December 5, to suspended prison sentences, for “public apology for crime” and “provocation to hatred”. In Gard, an investigation is open. Michel Sala as well as the departmental federation of the Communist Party contacted the Nîmes prosecutor, Cécile Gensac.
Tradition of Cevennes resistance
A small, quiet town of three thousand two hundred inhabitants, located in a semi-rural environment, where the Cévennes mountains stand out on the horizon, Quissac has always been attached to the tradition of Cévennes resistance and to welcoming foreigners, anchored in this territory since the religious wars of the 16thecentury. For around ten years, several groups have welcomed migrants, particularly from Afghanistan, and helped them integrate.
But, at the same time, the National Rally (RN) is making strong progress in the city. In one presidential mandate, Marine Le Pen’s party has made a lasting nest in the town, garnering 56.80% of the votes in the second round of the 2022 election (nearly 10 points more than in 2017). The “rebellious” deputy is also one of the only survivors of the last legislative elections in the Gard department, where four seats out of six went to the RN.
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