The government’s decision to ban the group was “proportionate” to the risk the group posed to public order, it ruled, confirming the government’s March 3rd decree.

Génération Identitaire (Generation Identity) had justified its actions by claiming it was contributing to the public debate on immigration and the fight against “Islamist terrorism”, the judgement noted.

But in fact it had “for several years propagated ideas … that tended to justify or encourage discrimination, hatred or violence towards foreigners and the Muslim religion”, it added.

Génération Identitaire spokesman Thaïs d’Escufon denounced the ruling as a “political decision”.

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But Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who published the March decree ordering the group’s dissolution, welcomed the ruling in a tweet Monday evening.

The court’s position was clear, he wrote: “Géneration Identitaire promotes an ideology inciting hatred and violence.”

One of the group’s last operations was in January, when about 30 members gathered at the Col du Portillon pass on the border of France and Spain in what they called a surveillance operation to “defend Europe”.