Laurent Nuñez applies Gérald Darmanin’s instructions to the letter. The prefect of Paris has issued decrees prohibiting five gatherings of organizations classified on the extreme right scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in the capital. Among the five banned gatherings are a conference and a demonstration organized by Action Française, as well as a march by the military association “Place d’armes”.
A rally organized by the movement of Yvan Benedetti, a figure of the far right, which was to take place on Sunday in tribute to Joan of Arc, was also banned. A sixth gathering, of “yellow vests”, was also banned by the prefect of police.
A “tense context” and instructions
In the decrees issued on Friday, the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez justifies the ban in particular by the fact that the gatherings are part of a “particularly tense context” after “the controversy aroused by the demonstration organized by the May 9 Committee” . He also points to the “risk of disturbing public order”, while several of these demonstrations have prompted calls for counter-rallys by organizations “close to the radical left” and a mobilization of the “anti-fascist movement who could “attempt to physically attack” ultra-right activists is possible.
These decrees are the translation of the instruction given Tuesday to the prefects by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to ban henceforth any demonstration “of the ultra-right or the extreme right”. This instruction came after the demonstration last Saturday in Paris by the “Comité du 9-Mai” to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the death of a far-right activist, Sébastien Deyzieu, who died accidentally in 1994. The parade of these activists ultra-right, mostly with their faces hidden and wearing Celtic crosses, sparked a lively controversy, while many protest rallies against pension reform are banned.