“A first”, according to the Minister of the Interior. On the sidelines of the demonstrations against the high cost of living which brought together at least 410,000 demonstrators, Saturday October 24, "we observed in at least two cities - this was the case in Nice and Montpellier - the presence of ultra-right activists who sought to confront the ultra-left, in any case to protect the businesses themselves", reported Laurent Nuñez during a press briefing on Saturday.
“We have identified at least fourteen cities in which there were small groups of the far right who attacked demonstrators,” Mathilde Panot, leader of the LFI deputies, also assured Sunday on France 2. “How is it possible that these militias were able to calmly cross a city with an extraordinary police force? (...) What does the Minister of the Interior say about it?”, commented on franceinfo Clémentine Autain, L'après MP for Seine-Saint-Denis.
In Nice, "around a hundred masked ultra-right activists converged on the city center to physically confront the demonstrators", Saturday afternoon, reported the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture. “Security forces maneuvered all afternoon to prevent the two groups from meeting,” including using a water thrower and tear gas grenades. However, "brawls took place on the outskirts of Old Nice between violent individuals from the two very mobile groups", according to the same source. According to a press release from the City of Nice, the scene took place "near the Hôtel des Postes and rue Alberti".
Several witnesses, interviewed by Nice-Matin, for their part report a "lightning assault" by a "hundred individuals" from the ultra-right against demonstrators or simple passers-by. “Three lightly injured (...) were taken care of by the firefighters” after these brawls, specifies the prefecture.
"I condemn with the greatest firmness the attacks committed today in Nice by ultra-right activists against the demonstrators of the peaceful procession! Nothing can justify such acts, and their perpetrators will have to answer to the courts, like the far-left thugs!", reacted on X the mayor of Nice, Eric Ciotti, ally of the National Rally.
The Nice public prosecutor announced in a press release on Sunday that eleven people "likely to belong to the ultra-right movement" were placed in police custody. The prosecution indicates that the individuals were “arrested in two vehicles”. “Some were in possession of masks, gloves, gas cans and batons,” specifies the public prosecutor. Among these eleven people, five are already known to the police.
In Montpellier, "a group of around twenty people came into contact with the demonstrators several times, looking for clashes, without intervention from the police", reports France 3 Occitanie. These were people mobilized after an appeal launched by a Montpellier resident at the origin of the Alpha Rise website, where Telegram groups are listed in 66 cities in France, including Montpellier, for a “Citizen Mutual Aid” project. The stated objective was to protect businesses after the damage and looting during the demonstration on October 17.
In images filmed by an independent photographer, several of these men hit demonstrators in front of the police, who only charged when the demonstrators responded.
The mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, condemned these actions on X, speaking of a "far-right militia" having "used force against demonstrators". On Sunday, the elected official announced to ICI Hérault that he had made a report to the public prosecutor after having received several videos of the violence. The LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Thomas Portes denounced on the social network “connivance between the CRS and fascist activists”. A “complacency” also pointed out by his colleague Raphaël Arnault.
In Rouen, demonstrators were "violated" by "far-right identitarians" without being arrested by the police, also reports the media Blast, which broadcast images of the scene. Here again, these were people mobilized via a Telegram “Citizen Mutual Aid” channel, according to the media.
At the end of the day, the Seine-Maritime prefecture drew up an initial assessment reporting 30 people arrested in Rouen for "acts of carrying weapons, participation in groups, masked faces". Three people were slightly injured, including a police officer, reports the same source, cited by France 3 Normandie.
Finally, in Lyon, the AFP saw a small group of a dozen young men, hooded or with their faces hidden, chanting "the street, France belongs to us" in the peninsula, forbidden to any procession or gathering. This group “never came across the demonstrators dispersed by the police,” says LyonMag, which assures that there were around twenty of these activists.
