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France will seek to ban three ultra-right and neo-Nazi groups responsible for racially charged and “intimidating” protests after the death of a teenager earlier this month.
Interior minister Gérald Darmanin said he would petition courts to dissolve a Paris-based neo-Nazi group known as the Martel Division and two others in an effort to quell tensions after a 16-year-old named Thomas was killed in a fight that degenerated at a village ball in the south-eastern town of Crépol.
“I will not let any militia, whether far-right or another radical movement, seek to enforce the law in place of prosecutors and police officers,” said Darmanin on France Inter on Tuesday as he vowed to prevent an escalation.
Thomas’s death has fuelled racial tensions because witnesses reported that the fight apparently pitted white residents from Crépol with a group of assailants that were said to be of Arab origin. Police are still investigating and prosecutors have said they have not determined if the clash was racially motivated.
On Saturday night, several hundred people from ultra-right groups from all over France converged on the neighbourhood where the alleged killers live in Romans-sur-Isère.
Police said some were armed with baseball bats and metal bars, and had come specifically to “battle with” locals. Individuals from the Martel Division — named after Charles Martel, a 7th-century Frankish military leader who fought Muslim invaders in Europe — were there. About 20 people were arrested.
“France has avoided a scenario like in Ireland because it has been firm and police acted quickly — preventing a sort of mini-civil war, I think,” Darmanin added, referring to recent rioting in Dublin instigated by far-right hooligans after a stabbing.
The death of Thomas, a rugby player and high-school student, has turned into a national issue in France as extremist groups and far-right politicians have seized upon it as an example of “anti-white” racism and evidence of how crime is worsening even in once tranquil small towns in the countryside.
It also comes at a tense time with France on high alert for terror attacks since mid-October when a radical Islamist knifeman killed a teacher in the northern town of Arras.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, the Rassemblement National (RN), on Tuesday sent out recruitment emails citing the death of Thomas as further evidence of the increasing “‘savagery” of society and vowing tougher measures to prevent citizens from having to live side by side with “barbarians”.
Prosecutors have said a fight erupted between Thomas and his friends and another group of young people from a nearby city at the end of the dance “for a trivial reason which, according to some, was linked to one person’s haircut”. The fight degenerated and Thomas was stabbed. He died of his injuries on the way to hospital.
Police have arrested nine people on potential charges of murder in an armed group, which would carry a life sentence, and attempted murder.
Far-right politician Éric Zemmour dubbed the attack a “francocide” and posted a leaked list of the alleged attackers that suggest they were all of Arab origin. The town mayor said on RMC radio on Tuesday that the victim’s family wanted the “racist character” of the attack to be examined by police.
Prosecutors have not named the individuals involved, and they said the investigation has not determined at this stage that anyone was targeted for their race, ethnicity or religion.
That has not stopped far-right politicians from drawing their own conclusions. “There is in our country a hatred that is rising in a part of the youth, in large part of immigrant origin, who act in France as foreigners who hate, detest and combat everything that France represents,” said RN leader Jordan Bardella.
On Monday night in Lyon, several hundred people, with some wearing black masks, marched through the city shouting slogans such as “Islam — out of Europe” and carrying a banner that read “Immigration kills”. Nine people were arrested.
Darmanin issued a directive to prefects on Monday to be alert for any such unrest, including by monitoring social media groups where extreme groups organise themselves. “Such actions aim to add disorder, violence and division to our society and should not distract us” from the mission of fighting crime, including what Darmanin called the “vile murder” of Thomas.
