Far-right demonstration: Retailleau takes legal action for “gestures and symbols”
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced on Tuesday, May 13, that he had taken legal action over "gestures and symbols" observed during a demonstration called by a far-right group last weekend in Paris.
Around a thousand far-right activists marched in the capital on Saturday afternoon at the call of the May 9 Committee to commemorate the death of far-right activist Sébastien Deyzieu, who died accidentally in 1994.
Questioned during the government question session on "symbols of hate" referring to "fascist ideology" within the parade, notably identified by the newspaper Libération, Bruno Retailleau assured the National Assembly that his ministry had "viewed the videos" and made a report to the courts under "article 40" of the code of criminal procedure "for gestures and symbols which, in our opinion, fall under the law" .
"We have reported (...) a number of individuals, including those responsible for maintaining order at the far-right parade, who marched with their faces masked and hooded. This is a crime," he said.
In a video published by Libération , for example, we see a swastika tattooed on the arm of one of the protesters. Surrounded by hooded security personnel and monitored by large numbers of law enforcement officers, some participants in the demonstration wore Celtic crosses or T-shirts evoking Nazi iconography, as well as the hooligan movement.
The Paris police had initially banned this annual demonstration, citing a risk of public disorder. However, the administrative court suspended this measure, considering in particular that "the same demonstration organized last year had not given rise to any prosecution of demonstrators."
La Croıx
