Operation on the Spanish border: calls for the dissolution of Generation Identity

The new media operation of Generation Identity is causing a stir in Occitania.

While the movement yesterday organized a march to symbolically "monitor" the Franco-Spanish border, in order to denounce the lack of controls on the entry routes of migrants, several elected officials and an anti-racist association demanded the dissolution of the group, accused to advocate values ​​of hatred and to adopt “

violent and dangerous

”

behavior

.

Read also: Génération Identitaire launches an anti-migrant operation in the Pyrenees

Asked by

Le Figaro

, Clément Martin, spokesperson for Génération Identitaire, returned to the operation, which followed the decision of the prefect of Haute-Garonne Etienne Guyot to close the Col du Portillon in the Pyrenees, due to a "

high terrorist threat and sustained migrant movements

".

“

About thirty of our activists joined the Col du Portillon to check if it was blocked.

Apart from a block of stone in the middle of the road, access remained free for a passage on foot

”, underlines the activist first.

"

We blocked the access, then we moved around to check the other points of entry into the territory

."

For the movement, the action is "

extremely positive, we serve everyone

".

Members of the movement have posted photos of their visit to social media.

A person was interviewed after having deployed a banner on a site belonging to EDF.

The gendarmes of Luchon, however, indicated that they had not made any arrests, and commented on the operation in

La Dépêche

: “

There was no violation of public order.

Protesters walked the mountain.

They were poorly equipped, often in basketball, and our role was to advise them so that their operation did not end in a rescue operation

”.

A useless mobilization of the police, for the prefect

Prefect Etienne Guyot nevertheless disapproved of the excursion in a press release, seeing "

purely symbolic actions which did not cause any disturbance to public order but which unnecessarily mobilized the police, diverting them from their mission. border surveillance

”.

If Génération Identitaire admits that the gendarmes arrived quickly on the scene, the movement supports having helped them in their surveillance mission.

"

We wanted to lend a hand

to the police," Thaïs d'Escufon told AFP a spokesperson in the Pyrenees.

Likewise, several elected representatives of the region, including the socialist regional president, Carole Delga, spoke yesterday in a

press

release of an operation "

carried out illegally,

[having] the

sole aim of creating a media buzz and thus allowing these extremists to develop their hate speech

”.

The president of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne Georges Méric (PS), the deputy of Haute-Garonne Joël Aviragnet (PS) and the mayor of Luchon Eric Azemar (without label) joined the call of the President, who asked "

the Prefect of Haute-Garonne to put an end firmly and without delay to this coup, unworthy and contrary to the values ​​of the Republic and our territory

".

The group had already launched a similar operation in the Alps on the Franco-Italian border in 2018. Three of its executives were then prosecuted for "

carrying out an activity in conditions likely to create in the mind of the public a confusion with the exercise of a public function

”.

Sentenced for the first time, the activists were nevertheless released last December by the Grenoble Court of Appeal.

"

The words of Carole Delga are totally ideological

" replies Clément Martin.

Génération Identitaire was the subject of several legal proceedings after other shock actions, such as the occupation of a mosque in Poitiers, the deployment of a banner on the Saint-Denis allowance fund, or during a demonstration against police violence organized by the Traoré family.

Read also: Will the European Migration Pact produce a “major demographic shock”?

The latter also asked the Ministry of the Interior to dissolve "

this small group of extreme right violent and dangerous

".

A call taken up by the National Observatory of the Far Right (ONED), an association recently launched by personalities and elected officials from the left.

She said yesterday Tuesday that she had written about this to Gerald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior.

The general secretary of the structure, Joséphine Delpeyrat, called for saying "

Stop this movement which is every day more violent, racist and anti-feminist

".

Joined by

Le Figaro

, Thomas Portes, president of the association, for his part denounced "

a communication operation which shows the values ​​of this movement.

Monitoring the borders, denouncing people to the police, it reminds us of the darkest hours in our history,

”he compared.

“

Gérald Darmanin recently

dissolved associations

on the grounds that they were contrary to the republic.

We ask him to do the same for Génération Identitaire

”insisted Thomas Portes.

In the letter sent to Beauvau, ONED indeed makes several accusations against Génération Identitaire, including that of having several members convicted at the end of 2020 "

for having made Nazi remarks

".

The association also claims that an activist "

robbed and threatened a business leader before being shot by the police

" last October in Avignon.

No link between these people with the Generation Identity movement has however been proven to date, the man shot dead in Avignon being also followed in psychiatry.

This Wednesday, Génération Identitaire explains to

Le Figaro

"

think about filing a complaint

" concerning the observatory's allegations.

Read also: Immigration: "Hospitality for all is hospitality for no one"