Virtually unknown last week, extremely controversial since. In a few days, Raphaël Arnault has become one of the legislative candidates about whom social networks, and therefore often the media, talk the most.
The reason ? This 29-year-old Lyonnais was designated by La France insoumise (LFI) and the New Popular Front in the 1st constituency of Vaucluse even though he is… listed as S. That is to say, he belongs to a police register of more than 30,000 names listing individuals potentially dangerous to national security.
The almost thirty-year-old owes this inscription to his membership in La Jeune Garde. He is spokesperson for this ultra-left anti-fascist movement known in particular for violent actions. He himself is the subject of several accusations, whether of assault or threat. Alice Cordier, the director of the Némésis Feminist Collective, says she recorded him making death threats against her.
Recently, Raphaël Arnault had to explain himself to the police again for advocating terrorism. He had then just expressed, on social networks, his “solidarity” with “the Palestinian resistance” after the bloody attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7.
On his X profile, the Lyonnais claims to be “Activist against the extreme right”. “3,2,1: sweating fascists,” he posted again to announce his inauguration by the New Popular Front on Saturday.
Except that his legitimate parachute drop, while he was a candidate in his city in 2022, does not pass into his own camp either. The department’s left-wing forces gave their support to another candidate on Monday. “We cannot accommodate a parachuted candidate who does not know the territory. And then, we cannot be part of a violent movement and say that we are for democracy,” explained the socialist senator from Vaucluse, Lucien Stanzione.
“False propaganda”
“He has too extremist a profile, which is why the humanist, social-democratic left arc, of which I am a part as well as the mayor of Avignon Cécile Helle, decided to support Philippe Pascal, former labor inspector, well known in the territory of workers and people in difficulty,” he added.
Raphaël Arnault indicated in the regional daily Provence that the accusations of violence targeting him are “false propaganda”. “Get the convictions out of me!” », he added, he who had also been violently attacked by members of the far-right group “Zouaves Paris”, in September 2021.