The poster featured “symbols related to Nazism.”
The Rhône prefecture banned this Friday an ultra-right forum planned for Saturday in Lyon by the “Lyon populaire” movement.
The prefectural decree cites “a wild poster campaign”, the presence of guests “identified as belonging to the Lyon ultra-right” and the risk of clashes with far-left movements.
On the poster of the event was notably represented a beam, in reference to Italian fascism also taken up by the Vichy regime, as well as a Celtic cross, the symbol of the GUD (Groupe Union Défense), a radical student union of far right.
[INTEGRAL ECOLOGY FORUM]
📣 We are pleased to announce, for the second year in a row, the holding of our forum.
This will have the theme of integral ecology and will take place on Saturday March 9, 2024 in the capital of Gaul.
pic.twitter.com/jqG4F53y4T
— LyonPopulaire (@LyonPopulaire) January 29, 2024
Founded after the dissolution in 2019 of the Bastion social group, Lyon Populaire is part of the revolutionary nationalist movement, a far-right trend centered on belonging to European civilization.
The group had planned to organize the second edition of its annual “forum” on Saturday, dedicated this year to “integral ecology”.
In particular, he planned debates on the themes “what ecology for our camp?”
» or even “towards green totalism?
".
Its dissolution requested by the mayor
The founder of Lyon populaire, Eliot Bertin, was initially scheduled to speak on the theme of “ecological activism” but he was placed in pre-trial detention at the beginning of February with another ex-member of Bastion social.
They are accused of having participated in an attack in November against an association premises in Vieux Lyon, where a conference on Gaza was taking place.
Seven people were injured, three of them seriously, during this action which led to the indictment of seven of the attackers for “criminal conspiracy” and “participation in a group formed with a view to preparing violence or damage”.
VIDEO.
Mortars, wounded… A conference on Palestine targeted by the ultra-right in Lyon
Until then more discreet than the Remparts, the other Lyon ultra-right group heir to Génération identitaire (dissolved in 2021), Lyon populaire regularly organizes conferences in Lyon in the premises of the François Duprat circle (1940-1978), an ideologue National Front denier.
Elected officials, including the environmentalist mayor Grégory Doucet, have been calling for several months for the dissolution of the two groups and the closure of their premises.
The ultra-right brings together nearly 3,300 people in France, including 1,300 on S files, according to a recent parliamentary report.
Lyon, one of its historic strongholds, is regularly the scene of banned demonstrations or violence.