Nationalist leader Yvan Benedetti. JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
The Paris police headquarters has banned the movement “Les nationalistes” from paying tribute this Saturday to one of their figures. Several activists, including Yvan Benedetti, nevertheless went to the cemetery.
Nationalist leader Yvan Benedetti told the Figaro that he was on Saturday morning at the cemetery of Thiais (Val-de-Marne) to pay tribute to Pierre Sidos, a figure of the far right Pétainist, who died in 2020. According to him, several other people went to the cemetery for this rally to which an invitation circulated on social media, and police vans were parked at the entrance to the cemetery. Indeed, the Paris police headquarters announced on Friday the banning of this gathering, organized by the Les Nationalistes movement.
“The Prefect of Police prohibits a rally of the Les Nationalistes movement announced by social networks for Saturday September 2 at the #Thiais cemetery (94)“, had indicated the police headquarters on Twitter. “The absence of authorization from the city of Paris and the risks of remarks or gestures contrary to the laws of the Republic justify this ban.“, she added.
Yvan Benedetti specifies that he did not file an interim release to try to obtain the suspension of the prohibition order. “But I will attack this decree on the merits“, he adds, considering that he is “become a second-class citizen“Since on instructions from Gérald Darmanin, the Paris police headquarters systematically and preventively prohibits gatherings of his movement. “It is a crime of dirty face of facho. It’s not just about collective rights but about individual freedom: I no longer have freedom of expression” he adds, saying he does not want “serve as a stepping stone to presidential ambitionsby Gerald Darmanin.
Pierre Sidos was the founder of the Jeune Nation movement and then of L’Oeuvre française. Yvan Benedetti had succeeded him at the head of the French Work before the dissolution in 2013 of this openly anti-Semitic movement in the wake of the death in Paris of the far-left activist Clément Méric during a fight with small groups of extreme RIGHT.