Twelve former members of the dissolved ultra-right group Génération Identitaire, accused of having illegally reconstituted a new association, were arrested in France on Tuesday, we learned from sources close to the case.
Four other people are still wanted by gendarmes from the Paris research section, according to one of these sources.
Génération identitaire (GI) was dissolved in March 2021 by a decree in the Council of Ministers.
Several of its former executives are suspected of
“having regrouped within a new association called Argos”
whose objectives are
“close”
to Génération Identitaire, according to the other source.
On its website, the Argos association claims to defend
“our multi-millennial civilization, mutilated by decades of progressive delusions, forced amnesia and submission to other civilizations.”
On Telegram, activists from the ultra-right movement announced that
“several patriots from the whistleblower support association (ASLA)”
, another structure born from the dissolution of Génération Identitaire,
“were placed in police custody »
.
“Searchs took place this morning, at 6 a.m., throughout France among those who dared to resist.
(Paris, Lyon, Savoie...)
,” said these activists.
According to one of the two sources, these searches were carried out in particular in Paris, Lyon and Savoie.
AFP was unable to confirm that some of the suspects were also members of ASLA.
“Political persecution”
This raid occurs as part of an investigation opened for
“participation in the maintenance or reconstitution of an organization”
after
“a report by article 40 from the Minister of the Interior
Gérald Darmanin
”
, specified one of the sources close to the case.
“We have an acceleration, a multiplication of procedures against the identity movement which is akin to political persecution”
, reacted to AFP the lawyer Pierre-Vincent Lambert, who presents himself as
“the counsel of one party of the accused”
.
“We have cases that have been (dormant) for years that we are bringing back to the courts.
For a poster, a banner or a small action it's forty-eight hours of police custody and almost systematic searches
,” added Me Lambert, denouncing
“disproportionate means”
.
Generation Identitaire, an ultra-right political movement pleading for the
“defense”
of European identity, became known through the media coverage of spectacular operations against Islam and migrants.
The decree dissolving GI noted in particular
“links with small ultra-right groups from which (GI) receives logistical support and which defend an ideology calling for discrimination, violence or hatred in the name of racialist or supremacist theories »
.