Bordeaux, Toulouse, Brest or Clermont-Ferrand… Many cities have banned any ultra-right gathering this weekend in tribute to Thomas, killed during a village festival in Crépol (Drôme) in mid-November. The authorities fear violent clashes with ultra-left activists.
In Bordeaux, the Gironde prefecture has banned, like the previous week, any demonstration in part of the city center bordering the banks of the Garonne, from 6 p.m., due to the risk of “clashes between the ultra-right and ultra-left.” The prefect also banned a gathering in tribute to Thomas scheduled for 7 p.m. in Bordeaux, supported by the far-right student union La Cocarde and the small nationalist group La Bastide Bordeaux, founded by former youth activists with Zemmour.
“Call to hatred”
A mobilization of the French identity group Furie Française, planned in Toulouse on Friday at 7 p.m., was also banned for fear of “violent clashes” with activists from “the ultra-left and anti-fascist Toulouse movement” who had called for a counter-demonstration, indicated the Haute-Garonne prefecture. This gathering, entitled “Stop the massacre of French people”, convened by “members of ex-Generation Identitarian”, “was expected to attract several small ultra-right groups”, added the prefecture in a press release.
A similar demonstration planned in Brest on Friday was also banned, according to a prefectural decree, because of its risk of “constituting a public call to hatred”. Same thing in Clermont-Ferrand, where a “citizen rally to demand justice and security for the French” was scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. The prefecture explained its decision by the “recent nature of the murder of young Thomas in Crépol” and “in order to prevent any risk of disturbance to public order”. According to a police source, 50 people are still expected there.
Other demonstrations are also planned such as in Bourges, La Roche-sur-Yon or even in Tours where some 200 people could gather on Saturday, according to the same police source.