“Foreign rapists out” and “Free us from immigration”. On Sunday, two young women from the Némésis collective took the route of the Besançon carnival, which brought together more than 20,000 people, brandishing signs associating migrants and rapists. A banner showing the drawing of the face of a blonde girl with blue eyes, partially covered by two black hands, was also hung from the facade of a building.
An activist from a small “identity feminist” group was placed in police custody on Tuesday for several hours, said the public prosecutor, Etienne Manteaux. The custody of this 19-year-old woman “was lifted on Tuesday around 4:20 p.m. in order to continue the preliminary investigation,” said the Besançon public prosecutor’s office.
“Activist for France”
This student in Economic and Social Administration presented herself on Tuesday morning upon summons to the Besançon police station, where she was placed in police custody. Another young woman “will be interviewed later” as part of the same investigation, added the prosecution.
On Facebook, she says her name is Yona, she was born in Marseille and she obtained her baccalaureate last June in Besançon. On X, where she is followed by more than 20,000 people, she presents herself as “spokesperson and activist for the Némésis collective” and “activist for France”. “What is happening is intolerable,” she wrote on the social network as she left police custody.
She speaks in far-right media such as Radio Courtoisie and received “a medal” in February from the Reconquête des Bouches-du-Rhône senator Stéphane Ravier “for an act of courage”. “Last November, I remained in opposition to a “journalist” wanting to tear down posters that I had put up in memory of Thomas [l’adolescent mort à Crépol] “, she explained.
Yona also regularly clashes with the far-right influencer Thaïs d’Escufon, whose “attempts at shabby stunts” she deplores. [qui] are beginning to seriously taint the image of right-wing women.”
A small group already known
The far-right collective Némésis considered that this placement in police custody was a “persecution” of its activists, in a press release published on its Facebook page. “Their action on Sunday in Besançon during the carnival aimed to denounce the flaws in the justice system of our country, which is failing in its duty by not applying the obligations to leave French territory (OQTF),” adds the press release.
This is not the first time that Nemesis identity activists have made headlines. During the Lille Braderie last September, they displayed two huge banners: one spoke of the teaching of Salafism in “high schools”, and the other spoke of insecurity. Three women, including the leader of the movement, Alice Cordier, were arrested. The town hall filed a complaint.
In March 2023, a 23-year-old young woman was arrested for “damage to public property by tags” after writing far-right slogans on a street in Lyon: “Had to vote Marine” and “7.2% excisions in Seine-Saint-Denis. His action was signed “Nemesis”.
Unanimous condemnation… except from the RN and Reconquest
The EELV mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot, filed a complaint on Monday and the Besançon prosecutor opened an investigation for “provocation of hatred or violence against a group of people because of their origin or an alleged race”. These facts are punishable by one year of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros, recalled the magistrate.
“We cannot accept that foreigners serve as scapegoats for all the crises we are going through,” declared Anne Vignot during a press conference, drawing a parallel with the rise of fascism in the 1930s.
The president of the LR opposition group in the Besançon municipal council, Ludovic Fagaut, condemned “strongly the words and actions that occurred during this demonstration”, criticizing “unacceptable facts”.
Jordan Bardella, head of the National Rally list in the European elections on June 9, regretted on his X account “that a sign calling for the expulsion of foreign rapists (…) is enough to end up in police custody”. The Reconquest leader in the European elections, Marion Maréchal, also gave her support to the activist in police custody.