Neo-fascist demonstration in Paris: behind the folklore, the far-right strikes again

Shaved heads, Celtic crosses, and identity chants. Every year, nationalists and neo-Nazis take to the streets of Paris to march from Port-Royal station to Rue des Chartreux via Boulevard Montparnasse, Rue de Rennes, and Rue d'Assas. Dressed all in black, to the rhythm of the slogan "Europe, Youth, Revolution," several hundred of them march in step through the streets of the capital to the call of the "C9M," for the May 9 Committee. Created after the death of nationalist activist Sébastien Deyzieu on May 7, 1994, who fell from a roof while being pursued by the police, this annual commemoration has become the unmissable event for the French far-right.

Laurent Nuñez, the Paris police prefect , issued a series of "prohibition of demonstration" orders on Wednesday, May 7, targeting both the nationalist parade planned for Saturday, May 10, but also the installation of an "anti-fascist village" in Place du Panthéon and an "anti-fascist and anti-racist" counter-demonstration taking the same route as the C9M. A shot in the dark? Last year, the prefect saw his orders overturned by the administrative court, the judges considering that they constituted "a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom to demonstrate" , allowing some 500 nationalists to take to the streets of Paris.

According to the Prefecture, this year's demonstration "is being organized behind the scenes by members of the former GUD who have connections with European neo-Nazi and neo-fascist movements ." This information was confirmed by a source within the Parisian anti-fascist community: "We are mainly finding ex-GUD members who created a new group, the Hussards Paris, after their dissolution in 2024. They are also supported by hooligans from Jeunesse Boulogne and the neo-fascist group Luminis."

The application for authorization for the demonstration was filed by Maylis de Cibon, a member of the Luminis group and former leader of Cocarde Assas, a far-right student union adept at punching. A resume that hasn't prevented her from being hired as a parliamentary assistant to several National Rally MPs in recent years.

Proof of a certain porosity with the RN? She is in any case not the only one to maintain close ties with Marine Le Pen's party... One of the figures of the Hussards Paris is called Gabriel Loustau. He is the son of Axel Loustau, a former GUD executive who moved to the RN – he was elected regional councilor of Île-de-France in 2015 under its colors – and reputed to be close to Marine Le Pen .

A regular at C9M protests and intimidation. The RN leader had to publicly distance herself from him in 2023, after Loustau senior was accused of threatening a photographer on site. The son has, it seems, taken up the torch. "Last year, Gabriel Loustau was the capo (leader, in the language of football fans, editor's note) at C9M," our source continues.

A violent extremist with a charged criminal record despite his twenties. In June, he was convicted of death threats and public insult "on the grounds of origin, race or religion" and, in a second case, given a six-month suspended prison sentence for a homophobic attack in Paris on the evening of the European election results.

Far-right groups—there are reportedly nearly 4,000 individuals claiming to be part of this movement—do not limit themselves to their annual show of force. They regularly make headlines in the courts with actions of rare violence. On April 25, in Albi (Tarn), around twenty members of the Patria Albiges group, armed with batons and tear gas, carried out a punitive raid on a well-known left-wing bar.

That same evening, this time in Nantes, another bar suffered a similar attack by a commando unit that had come specially from Angers to do battle. In Paris, on the evening of Sunday, February 16, a group stormed the offices of the cultural association of immigrant workers from Turkey. Two people were injured in the attack, including a CGT union activist , who was beaten to the ground and stabbed in the hip.

"This movement should not be judged solely by its degree of violence ," adds political scientist Jean-Yves Camus. "Fifteen years ago, the theory of the Great Replacement or anti-white racism was limited to these groups. They have since become widely disseminated in public debate," he notes. All the more reason not to underestimate them.