Justice suspends ban on ultra-right demonstration on Saturday in Paris

The administrative court suspended, on Saturday May 11, the ban by the Paris police prefect of an ultra-right demonstration planned for the afternoon in Paris, considering that it was “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom to demonstrate”. The court was urgently seized on Tuesday by the organizers of this demonstration, the May 9 Committee. Its decision, which AFP consulted, was notified on Saturday morning to the various parties.

This group organizes a gathering every year to commemorate the anniversary of the death of a far-right activist, Sébastien Deyzieu, who died accidentally in 1994. To motivate this decree, the police headquarters had particularly focused on a risk of disturbances to public order and recalled the precedent of 2023. That year, the parade of the “May 9 Committee”, which had not been banned, sparked a lively controversy.

Some 600 ultra-right activists, mostly dressed in black and with masked faces, marched through the streets of Paris displaying flags with Celtic crosses. or the “sonnenrad” (black sun), composed of three intertwined swastikas. They had chanted “Europe youth revolution”, the slogan of the far-right student union Groupe Union Défense (Gud).

In reaction to the controversy, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin asked the prefects to ban all ultra-right demonstrations and meetings. In Paris, the administrative court has since suspended several times, in the name of freedom to demonstrate, banning orders issued by Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez.