Social anger: Laurent Nuñez disputes that the police protected the ultra-right on the sidelines of the demonstrations

Did the police and gendarmes let the ultra-right activists attack demonstrators on Saturday October 24? “No, certainly not,” maintains Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, while LFI accuses the police of having “protected far-right militias.”

In videos posted on social networks, we see men, considered to belong to the ultra-right movement, attacking peaceful demonstrators in the processions. These attacks took place in “Nice, Montpellier, Nancy, and around ten other” cities, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

In Rouen, in a video broadcast by the online media Blast, ultra-right activists, some with their faces hidden, beat demonstrators. Police officers intervene, but let the attackers leave. The latter then intone: “Rouen, Rouen, nationalists” and “The street, France, belongs to us”. In Nancy, a group of hooded people attacked demonstrators, threw projectiles at them, then, singing the Marseillaise, they placed themselves behind mobile gendarmes who intervened in the direction of the procession, according to a video posted on the Libération website.

In Nice, around a hundred “masked ultra-right activists” converged on the city center to “physically confront the demonstrators,” the prefecture indicated. Eleven people will be tried, several of whom have criminal records. “Masks, gloves, gas canisters and batons” were seized from their cars.

Calls on social networks, emanating from “many ultra-right movements”, from people from “the identity movement” and “from nationalists as well, who wanted to go down to city centers to protect businesses” during the social mobilization on Saturday, were detected by the security services, Laurent Nuñez reported on RMC/BFMTV on Monday. These “formed groups” came “mainly, in reality, to attack the ultra-left movement, as they usually do,” added the minister.

The presence of identity groups during the mobilization day on Saturday was a risk identified by the intelligence services, said a source close to the matter. Police officers and gendarmes “intervened on numerous occasions to disperse and prevent clashes between the ultra-left and the ultra-right” when they noticed brawls, assured Laurent Nuñez.

But the attitude of the police, who, in the videos, do not question the attackers, raises questions and has sparked strong criticism, particularly from LFI elected officials. “In Nice, all demonstrations were prohibited. Except for the fascists who were able to walk around town armed with knives and iron bars to attack passers-by. Are Minister Nuñez and Mayor Ciotti protecting them?” accused Insoumis deputy Manuel Bompard on X.

“Yes the police kill. Yes the police protected far-right militias this weekend. Yes, police violence and racism are systemic in the police. (...) It is time to bring the police back into the field of the Republic,” commented the Insoumis MP Thomas Portes on the same social network. “No, we are not protecting anyone, certainly not,” said Laurent Nuñez. “I want to put an end to these rumors: at no time, obviously, did the police protect them. At no time did they work in consultation with police officers and gendarmes,” he said.

In the context of the demonstrations, with the risk of violence and damage, “ultra-right activists were not systematically arrested,” Beauvau explained on Sunday to justify the attitude of the police. “The police and gendarmes had a mission, which was to avoid looting and put an end to the abuses of the far-left movement” during the processions, insisted the Minister of the Interior.

He asked the prefects to take legal action to initiate criminal proceedings against ultra-right members for having formed a group “with a view to committing violence” and warned that “administrative consequences may also follow”, such as the dissolution of groups. The police unions contacted by AFP did not respond or did not wish to comment.