Le Figaro Bordeaux
The extreme right again facing justice.
On March 23 and 24, eight men from the Bordeaux Nationalist group (now dissolved) were tried in Bordeaux for attacks against residents of the Saint-Michel district committed last summer.
Two of them were again in court this Friday, for violent actions committed at the same time, during the Pride march.
In total, nine defendants, including seven present at the hearing, were summoned for facts dating back to June 12, 2022.
Shortly before the procession of the Pride march passed in front of the eco-citizen house, the nine men had climbed onto the roof of the building, their faces masked, and had unfurled a sign in front of the demonstrators with the words "Protect the children
"
and “
Stop LGBT madness
” (the acronym LGBT includes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people).
They are also accused of having performed Nazi salutes, proclaimed homophobic slogans such as "
Dirty PD
", "
Death to PD
", "
We fuck LGBT
" and "
In the ass LGBT
".
These last two sentences as well as the Nazi salutes are attested to by several videos taken by members of the procession.
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Activists from Generation Z
The next day, the town hall of Bordeaux had filed a complaint for damage to a pedestrian crossing in the colors of the rainbow, Cours du Chapeau-Rouge, covered with blue white red paint, with the inscription "homeland"
and
a David's star.
The slogans "
Fuck LGBT
", "
Stop LGBT
" and "
No homo
" had also been found on public furniture, recalled the judge.
The investigation had made it possible to recognize several individuals arrested on the roof of the eco-citizen house as being the perpetrators of the damage to the zebra crossing.
In court, the seven individuals were questioned on what they meant by “
LGBT madness
” and “
LGBT lobby
”, in order to understand their motivations.
Several argued that the outfits of some Pride participants should not be allowed on public roads, such as walking topless.
As for the inscription "
Let's protect our children
" on the sign, one of the seven defendants, also heard by the courts on the violence committed in the Saint-Michel district, explained for example to be "
against the indoctrination of children
" , and especially "
giving them ideas, sexual alternatives, rather bizarre stuff with all sorts of objects, out of place for children
”.
The nine men mostly knew each other during the last presidential campaign, having all been activists or supporters of Generation Z, Eric Zemmour's youth movement.
They would have planned this action together, by making the banner and buying smoke bombs in the colors of France.
All of the defendants, however, denied outright having made Nazi salutes when they were on the roof of the eco-citizen house, despite the presentation of visual evidence in the courtroom.
"
It was not a Nazi salute but a 'clapping'
," explains Enzo L., like those given in stadiums during sports matches.
However, the prosecutor pointed out that because they were holding the banner, it was difficult for the defendants to successfully clap their hands.
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An explosion of homophobic violence
Several associations are civil parties to this trial, including the Human Rights League, SOS Homophobia, Girofard, Mousse, ADHEOS and Stop Homophobia.
One of the representatives of the civil parties, Maître Thibault Laforcade, considered it important to remind the defendants of the origin of the pride march.
In 1969, eight policemen entered a New York bar and brutalized several people, "
simply because they were men, they danced together and they kissed
".
A year later, the first "
Pride
" took place in New York, bringing together several associations fighting against discrimination.
In France, the first pride march dates back to 1977. At the time, one found among the slogans against them: “
Kill a homosexual for the love of Christ
”.
Since then, the pride marches have become festive gatherings, carnivals, but in which "
the notion of gathering, no offense to some, is fundamental
", hammered Maître Laforcade.
“
The primary objective of the march is to unite, to no longer be afraid.
According to the lawyer, "
when we unfurl this banner, when we have this type of insults, when we give Nazi salutes, we know what we are invoking, that we are referring to a certain part of the story where homosexual vice had to be purged
".
He also clarified the chilling instructions given at the end of this demonstration: “
do not go home alone
”.
Student lawyer Antoine Genet, during his argument, specified that "
for the past five years, France has experienced an explosion of homophobic violence
", according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, with "
75 % increase in homophobic offenses committed in public space
” between 2016 and 2021. The future lawyer recalls that “
60% of LGBT people who experience homophobic aggression think in the following year of ending their lives
” .
According to him, "
to attack the pride march is to show this hatred of the expression of freedom of LGBT people
".
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Conditional sentence required
The defense lawyer, Maître Pierre-Marie Bonneau, meanwhile wanted to insist on a "
desire to shock
" on the part of the demonstrators participating in the pride march.
According to the lawyer, these people would judge that “
this is our identity, if you do not accept it, you will accept it with forceps or a blow on the head
”.
Speaking of a "
frenzied exhibitionist on the part of political activists
", the lawyer accused the participants of the Bordeaux procession of being "
extremists, political activists who voluntarily want to shock in order to convey a message
".
According to him, "
this is what shocked other political activists, who wanted to provide an answer
".
The public prosecutor, considering that she was dealing with "
defendants who sometimes tried to victimize themselves
", - the latter having indeed suffered projectiles from the demonstrators against whom they had made this banner - considered that "
freedom of expression does not mean that you can write whatever you want, climb on the roof of a house and make your opinion known
”.
Deploring "
a speech not very constructed for militants
", and "
guilty amalgams
", the representative of the public prosecutor considered that the defendants must be condemned for acts of provocation to hatred and violence, and proposed "
a penalty warning
".
Against two of the defendants, Enguerrand O. and Yanis I., the prosecutor requested a ten-month prison sentence, suspended, and a fine of 1,000 euros.
For the other defendants, she also requested six months' imprisonment, still suspended.
None of them therefore risk a prison sentence, unless there is a repeat offence.
Maître Daniel Lasserre, representing the city of Bordeaux and the metropolis, asked for the symbolic sum of one euro, in compensation for the damage, considering that "emotion is not quantified
in terms of money
", although the cost of these damages committed during the pride march is estimated at nearly 15.00 euros.
After a hearing that lasted a good part of the day, the judgment was reserved.
The court will deliver its decision on May 26.
