The notice was sent on Wednesday evening to the Remparts, who have ten days to defend themselves. At the end of the adversarial period, the dissolution must be approved by the Council of Ministers.
The same letter was sent by the associations La Traboule and Top Sport Rhône, which manage the bar of the same name and the Agogé combat sports hall, a meeting place for far-right activists in the Old Lyon district.
“Wall of Civilization”
The capital city of Gaul is one of the strongholds of this movement and has 300 to 400 activists, according to local authorities. Their forerunner, Remparts, was built on the ashes of Génération Identitaire, a collective that disbanded in March 2021.
The small group prides itself on its Facebook page as a “bulwark of civilization” and regularly hosts “rooted aperitifs” at Traboula, whose facade bears the slogan “Maison de l’Identité”.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, mentioned the dissolution of the Remparts on 28 November after an ultra-right demonstration reminiscent of a punitive expedition in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) in response to the death of young Thomas in Crépol. The minister also mentioned the groups Division Martel and La Citadelle, which have since disbanded.
“New little counter-fire”
The proceedings, launched on Wednesday, accuse the Remparties, who do not have association status, of being “a de facto group and its members using the premises of two other associations”.
It is based on calls for hatred against the LGBT, Muslim or foreign community by some of its members, their presence at violent demonstrations as well as trials for attacks.
“If this dissolution project ends, we will appeal to the State Council,” said the group’s spokesman Antoine Durand, contacted by AFP. “It’s quite obviously a new little backlash that Gérald Darmanin and the government are starting to try to hide their security records (…) bowed out,” he added.
“I thank the Minister of the Interior for this decision. Our warnings were heard,” commented the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, who has been calling for the dissolution of a small group as several representatives of different tendencies for two years.
“Let us remain vigilant in the face of the risk of reformation by the extreme right,” he added in a press release, calling for “national unity in the fight against these enemies of the Republic.”