These demonstrators, dressed in black and often masked, mostly young men, displayed black flags marked with the Celtic cross and a few red smoke bombs. They gathered, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, behind the black banner “Sébastien present”, evoking the activist Sébastien Deyzieu, who died accidentally 29 years ago. The Paris police headquarters estimated the number of participants at 550.
They remained silent, except to proclaim “Europe youth revolution”, the slogan of the GUD (Union Defense Group) and refused to answer questions from AFP, in an atmosphere of hostility towards the press.
An order from the Paris police prefect had authorized the recording of images by drones, during this demonstration, in order to “prevent attacks on the safety of persons and property”.
The parade had as its point of arrival the rue des Chartreux (6th arrondissement) where a wreath was laid.
This demonstration takes place every year in memory of the young activist Sébastien Deyzieu, close to the former GUD, who died in 1994 after slipping from a roof on rue des Chartreux, during a demonstration “against American imperialism” which had was banned by the police headquarters. Some 400 people had gathered at the time at the call of the far-right groups “Union of Assas Students” and “Revolutionary Nationalist Youth”.