EDIT of September 10, 2023. Gérald Darmanin spoke on Saturday September 9 of the resurgence of the risk of an attack conceived abroad, of the type of those of November 13, 2015, due to the lesser presence of “the Americans, the French, in the Sahel , in the Levant and in Afghanistan. But the Minister of the Interior also mentioned another threat, that coming from “the ultra-right”, with “the supremacists and the accelerationists”. On this occasion 20 minutes offers you to reread this article from our journalist Police-Justice evoking the motivations of the “accelerationists”, a “neo-Nazi movement”.
Several dozen weapons, ammunition, elements that could be used in the composition of explosives… It was a major raid which was carried out on Wednesday by the DGSI, within the ultra-right movement: two men, who called for “violent actions” on the encrypted Telegram messaging service, are currently in police custody for “terrorist criminal association and direct provocation by an online means of communication to an act of terrorism”. Aged 60, the first was arrested in the Bordeaux region. Very unfavorably known – he was notably convicted of murder – he is suspected of having participated in the search for weapons.
But it is above all the profile of the man arrested in Montauban, without a criminal record, which challenges the investigators. According to the first elements of the investigation, this 46-year-old municipal employee is suspected of having hosted a Telegram channel in which he posted anti-Semitic and Islamophobic messages, calls for violence and did not hide his admiration for Brenton Tarrent, the author of the Christchurch (New Zealand) attack, which left 51 dead in a mosque in 2019. Consistent sources depict him as a follower of the “accelerationist” neo-Nazi movement. What do we know about this movement? Element of answers with Jean-Yves Camus, co-director of the Observatory of political radicalities at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
What do we call “accelerationism”?
It is a neo-Nazi movement which believes that, to dynamite the “system”, it is necessary to pit the different components of society against each other. The objective is to create a civil and racial war, from which they are obviously convinced to emerge victorious. This may involve violent actions carried out by members of this movement or through support for other violent actions, some of which may seem contrary to their beliefs.
For example, they may support Islamist attacks because, in their opinion, this will create tensions within society, resentment and, ultimately, pit one group against another. Accelerationists seek to use and exploit violence to sow chaos.
What is the difference with classic neo-Nazi groups?
First, supporting violent actions that are not specifically aimed at this or that target. Then, it is not a constituted and hierarchical group. It is a movement which brings together single individuals or very small cells who communicate on social networks, notably Telegram. They are very scattered and individual action is favored.
When did this movement appear?
It was born in 2015 in the United States under the name of “Atomwaffen Division” (“Nuclear Weapons Division”). Originally, it was a mixture of neo-Nazism and occultism but, as it spread – first in Anglo-Saxon countries then in Europe – it lost this second aspect, in particular because European society is much less imbued with religiosity than American society. Traces of this movement can be found in the manifesto written by the terrorist from Christchurch, New Zealand. During the searches at Stephan Balliet, the German who tried to attack the Halle synagogue in 2019, accelerationist literature was also found.
In France, the ultra-right movement is estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 people. Among them, how many accelerationists?
It’s very difficult to say, we don’t even really know when the movement took root in France, but probably relatively recently. I would say there are currently a few dozen, at most.