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Paris court clears far-right gathering, overturning ban

French monarchist movement Action Francaise was cleared to hold a demonstration in Paris on Sunday after the courts reversed a police ban issued on orders from the interior ministry to curtail far-right protests.

Paris court clears far-right gathering, overturning ban
This photograph taken on May 13, 2023 shows stickers with the logo of the French far-right monarchist movement Action Francaise. Photo. Thomas SAMSON/AFP.

Already Saturday about 350 of its members, some wearing masks and dressed in black, were able to attend a symposium in the capital, “France in danger”, after a court ruling overturned a ban issued by the authorities.

The gathering took place under heavy police surveillance, according to an AFP journalist.

“The execution of the police prefect’s order from May 12, 2023 is suspended,” said the Paris administrative court in a statement to AFP hours ahead of the symposium. The court however, rejected an appeal by Yvan Benedetti and his extreme far-right group The Nationalists, which has been banned from holding a rally at the same time Sunday.

Sunday’s gathering will honour Joan of Arc, who led the French to a famous victory over the English in the 15th century. She is revered by many of France’s far-right movements.

Police had issued several ban orders on Friday, after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin issued directives aimed at prohibiting any gatherings “of the ultraright or extreme right”.

That came after the controversy generated by a far-right white supremacist rally that was allowed to go ahead last weekend.

But as opposition deputies pointed out, police had cleared that rally at a time when pan-bashing protests against President Emmanuel Macron over his unpopular pension reform have been repeatedly blocked.

Politicians and activists denounced what they said were the government’s double standards.

‘Tense context’

In issuing this weekend’s bans, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez had argued that the far-right gatherings were a threat to public order because of possible clashes with radical left activists staging counter-demonstrations.

He had cited a “particularly tense context” after “the controversy provoked by the demonstrations” the previous weekend in Paris.

In last weekend’s march, around 600 people — some in masks, which French law prohibits in public spaces — march to commemorate the death of a fellow activist, Sebastien Deyzieu, in 1994.

But Action Francaise and the Nationalists appealed this weekend’s bans on the grounds that they constituted a serious, unlawful infringement on their fundamental freedoms by the state.

According to Olivier Perceval, secretary general for Action Francaise, the rally paying homage to Joan of Arc has been only banned twice before: once by the Germans during the war, and a second time after the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in 1990.

The court, overturning the ban, noted that Sunday’s rally did not of itself constitute an incitement to public disorder and acknowledged that this was a longstanding event in the group’s calendar.

Paris police had banned six rallies in Paris over the weekend on public order grounds.

Among them was one by the Yellow Vests movement, which in 2018 and 2019 shook the Macron administration in a series of massive protests, before the Covid pandemic effectively shut down their activities.

Some of their activists defied the ban Saturday, Paris police told AFP. Officers broke up the gathering and fined 62 people, they added.

Even before this weekend’s legal reversal, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin’s move to curtail far-right rallies had come in for criticism from some observers, who argued it was built on shaky legal grounds.

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POLITICS

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

President Emmanuel Macron warned that the policies of his far-right and hard-left opponents could lead to ‘civil war’, as France prepared for its most divisive election in decades.

Macron warns of ‘civil war’ if far right or hard left win election

French politics were plunged into turmoil when Macron called snap legislative elections after his centrist party was trounced by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in a European vote earlier this month.

Weekend polls suggested the RN would win 35-36 percent in the first round on Sunday, ahead of a left-wing alliance on 27-29.5 percent and Macron’s centrists in third on 19.5-22 percent.

A second round of voting will follow on July 7th in constituencies where no candidate takes more than 50 percent in the first round.

Speaking on the podcast Generation Do It Yourself, Macron, 46, denounced both the RN as well as the hard-left France Unbowed party.

He said the far-right “divides and pushes towards civil war”, while the hard-left La France Insoumise, which is part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, proposes “a form of communitarianism”, adding that “civil war follows on from that, too”.

Reacting to Macron’s comments, far-right leader Jordan Bardella told French news outlet M6: “A President of the Republic should not say that. I want to re-establish security for all French people.”

Bardella, the RN’s 28-year-old president, earlier Monday said his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues.

“In three words: we are ready,” Bardella told a news conference as he unveiled the RN’s programme.

READ ALSO What would a far-right prime minister mean for foreigners in France?

Bardella has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order programme.

“Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country,” he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, “restore order” and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.

He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for children born in France to foreign parents to gain citizenship.

Bardella added that the RN would focus on “realistic” measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.

He also promised a disciplinary ‘big bang’ in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialling the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of Macron’s Renaissance party poured scorn on the RN’s economic programme, telling Europe 1 radio the country was “headed straight for disaster” in the event of an RN victory.

On Tuesday, Attal will go head-to-head with Bardella and the leftist Manuel Bompard in a TV debate.

On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops and long-range missiles to Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support.

He added that his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be “extremely vigilant” in the face of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in French affairs.

Macron insisted that France would continue to support Ukraine over the long term as he met with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“We will continue to mobilise to respond to Ukraine’s immediate needs,” he said alongside Stoltenberg at the Elysee Palace.

The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire, which is dominated by the hard-left La France Insoumise.

Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the “patriotic and republican” choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon’s party.

La France Insoumise, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7th Hamas attacks as ‘terrorism’, denies the charges of anti-Semitism.

In calling an election in just three weeks Macron hoped to trip up his opponents and catch them unprepared.

But analysts have warned the move could backfire if the deeply unpopular president is forced to share power with a prime minister from an opposing party.

RN powerhouse Marine Le Pen, who is bidding to succeed Macron as president, has called on him to step aside if he loses control of parliament.

Macron has insisted he will not resign before the end of his second term in 2027 but has vowed to heed voters’ concerns.

Speaking on Monday, Macron once again defended his choice to call snap elections.

“It’s very hard. I’m aware of it, and a lot of people are angry with me,” he said on the podcast. “But I did it because there is nothing greater and fairer in a democracy than trust in the people.”

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