Like a sense of deja vu. Gérald Darmanin announced this Tuesday on France Inter that he would request the dissolution of three small ultra-right groups, including the Martel Division, after the punitive expedition of activists to Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) last weekend, consecutive at the death of young Thomas in Crépol. A measure which has shown, in the past, its limits. The Minister of the Interior had in fact initiated the same type of procedure, in February 2021, against the far-right group Génération Identitaire. The organization, which became famous after an anti-migrant operation in the Pyrenees, was dissolved in March of the same year by the Council of Ministers. But from its ashes, other small groups were created.
The Argos group thus wants to be the heir of Génération identitaire. Launched by elders of the dissolved small group, “it uses its codes and methods, but opens up to other chapels of the extreme right”, explained in October 2022 the Streetpress website. “Launched at the start of the 2022 school year, Argos is part of the galaxy of a myriad of small groups which took over from Génération identitaire after its dissolution. Often local groups” which “were not affected by the decision of the Ministry of the Interior”, indicated for its part the newspaper Release last September.
Defend “European civilization”
On its Instagram page (9,000 subscribers), a video from the organization advocates radical change to defend “European civilization”. After the death of Thomas, the small group broadcast on TikTok a poster campaign organized according to it in Rouen to denounce the “anti-French massacres”. In September, twelve men were arrested in Cherbourg during an undeclared gathering claimed by Argos to denounce the rape of a young woman. Prosecuted for “public provocation to commit a crime or misdemeanor”, all were acquitted.
In Lyon, one of the strongholds of the ultra-right, between 300 and 400 people are members of the movement, according to local authorities. Their bridgehead, the Remparts, was also built on the ashes of Génération identitaire. If we are to believe a video posted on Facebook, the group was present during the demonstration in Romans-sur-Isère on Saturday.
“Rooted aperitifs”
In mid-November, elected officials from several parties asked the government to dissolve it after violent action against a premises hosting a conference of the Palestine 69 collective, for which the Lyon prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. In 2022, an investigation was also opened for “provocation of hatred” after an ultra-right demonstration in tribute to the young Lola killed in Paris, “marked by xenophobic slogans”. The small group regularly organizes “rooted aperitifs” at Traboule, a mecca for the ultra-right in Lyon.
Monday evening, around a hundred people wandered on the peninsula, in the center of Lyon, around 8 p.m., before being dispersed by the police. Eight were arrested “later in the evening”, in the “fifth arrondissement”, a stronghold district of Lyon’s ultra-right, the prefecture said. In videos published on social networks, notably on the Facebook page of the group “Les Remparts”, masked individuals hold a banner “immigration kills” and shout “Islam outside Europe”. A gathering “for Thomas” in another district, at the call of the Remparts, had been banned by the prefecture.
“Dissolution measures reach a limit”
“In Lyon, as elsewhere, there is an illusion to be lifted. The groups which were dissolved, whether among the identitarians or on the side of the Social Bastion, did not disappear into nature. Neither do the activists,” explained 20 minutes, last October, Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist, specialist in nationalism and extremism in France and Europe and director of the Observatory of Political Radicalities at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. “Dissolution measures are reaching a limit. They had an effect, but this effect is not of the order of annihilation,” he observed.