Punches, kicks, flying chairs … The first meeting of candidate for the presidential election of Eric Zemmour, in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), ended with violence, Sunday, December 5 , during an action by SOS Racisme activists. Thursday, December 16, two men were indicted for willful violence, announces the Bobigny prosecutor’s office. One of the accused is the presumed leader of the ultra-right group “Zouaves Paris”, Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, 23, said the prosecution. The second is an 18-year-old young man. Both were placed under judicial supervision. They were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday and taken into police custody.
Eleven complaints were lodged by SOS Racisme activists out of the 12 present at the meeting. Among them, nine presented themselves to the forensic units which issued medical certificates establishing ITTs ranging from 0 to eight days, the prosecution said.
The use of video surveillance and the work of the investigation services made it possible to identify several alleged perpetrators of the aggression against several SOS Racisme activists, who had exhibited t-shirts “No to racism“, at the end of the meeting, before being attacked by supporters of the polemicist. Several media had thus identified Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, as one of the alleged attackers. The latter has already been sentenced to six months in prison with stay in January 2019 for violence committed during a demonstration of “yellow vests” on December 1, 2018.
Eric Zemmour said on Wednesday about the “Zouaves” and the violence that marked his meeting: “I do not control all the people who come, I (do) not know these people. They were there, not there, justice will decide”. The presidential candidate, however, considered that the violence denounced was “epsilonesque, marginal”, accusing “people of SOS racism” to have them “provoked”.
The Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, for his part announced on Sunday that he had initiated the procedure for the dissolution of the “Zouaves”, heirs of GUD, the former far-right student union.