Elected officials from several parties asked the government on Sunday to dissolve a small far-right group in Lyon, the day after the coup by ultra-right activists against a venue hosting a conference on Palestine. “I called on the Minister of the Interior and I wrote to his colleagues to obtain the dissolution of the Les Remparts group” and the closure “of their premises in Traboule,” the Renaissance du Rhône deputy explained to AFP. Thomas Rudigoz, relaunching an approach “initiated a long time ago”.
“These are militias who moved into the heart of Lyon, with shouts, anti-Semitic slogans, hoods, iron bars,” added the MP, condemning “exactions and speeches of rare violence” . “For months we have been alerting Gérald Darmanin to act in Lyon against the extreme right, and the acts of violence are repeated without end,” added ecologist deputy for Rhône Marie-Charlotte Garin on X (ex-Twitter). .
Lyon is one of the strongholds of the ultra-right in France
The Lyon public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “aggravated violence, damage in meetings, participation in a group with a view to preparing violence or damage”, AFP learned from the public prosecutor’s office. One of the attackers was arrested on Sunday evening and is still in police custody, according to the prosecution. The capital of Gaul is one of the strongholds of the ultra-right in France: between 300 and 400 people are members of the movement there, according to local authorities.
Les Remparts, a small ultra-right group from Lyon built on the ashes of Génération Identitaire, a collective dissolved in March 2021, prides itself on its Facebook page on being a “civilizational rampart” and regularly organizes “rooted aperitifs” at La Traboule, a mecca of the Lyon ultra-right. The attack on Saturday evening, which left three people lightly injured, was claimed on the Telegram loop of ultra-right identity and neo-Nazi West Casual by the “Guignol Squad”, an informal group customary in violent actions, created at the start of the “Yellow Vests”. ” in January 2019. According to commentators, it is a false nose used to avoid exposing more formal groups.
“This new attack reminds us of the urgency of dissolving these small groups and closing fascist premises,” argued La France Insoumise (LFI) in a press release published on X. Sandrine Rousseau, EELV deputy, and Olivier Faure, boss of the PS, both spoke of a “ratonnade”.