The Zouaves Paris are in the sights of the government. This tiny ultra-right group is suspected of having participated in the violent aggression of several SOS Racism activists during the first meeting of presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, on December 5 in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis). The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, declared to have initiated a procedure for the dissolution of this movement, during an interview with “Grand Jury “RTL-LCI-Le Figaro. He hopes that the Council of State will “will be right”.
Franceinfo returns to this tiny ultra-right group already known to the police.
They are ultra-violent activists doomed to “hold” the streets
Since 2018, they have been called “the Zouaves Paris” and form a group which brings “people who come from other more established groups, for violent and rapid actions”, explains Marion Jacquet-Vaillant, doctor in political science and specialist in identities, to AFP. Some members belonged to the old group Génération identitaire Paris, which was dissolved last spring. “They are above all ultra-violent of the ultra-right, whose ideological content is reduced to its simplest expression”, specifies Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist and co-director of the Observatory of political radicalities at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, in West France.
Heirs claimed from the Union Defense Group (GUD), a former far-right student union, the Zouaves Paris are led by Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, 23 years old. Used to street fights, the young man went to fight in 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh, place of“a quasi-holy war according to far-right propaganda, which sees it as a new battle between the Christian West and the ‘Muslim invader”, Explain Streetpress. Assuming “to be fascist”, during a meeting with Release in 2019, Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier refused at the time chis label for the Zouaves Paris.
This small group dedicated to “hold the street”, according to its leader, became the spearhead of extreme right-wing violence in and around the capital. According to the operations decided, the movement can go from fifteen people, who form its hard core, to thirty, according to Streetpress.
They are suspected of having attacked anti-racist activists at Eric Zemmour’s meeting
During Eric Zemmour’s first campaign meeting, on December 5, several SOS Racisme activists, showing off T-shirts bearing the “No to racism” logo, were attacked with punches and throwing chairs. “One of the attackers is a person who is a member of the Zouaves Paris (…). He was recognized by a person from the militant sphere”, declared the president of SOS Racisme, Dominique Sopo. According to several media, including Mediapart, Release and Streetpress, these are Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier.
A pro-Zemmour activist puts several violent punches at an anti-racist activist who came to demonstrate peacefully.
These are the same who claim to want to protect women #wildishly #ZemmourVillepinte
Video @ClementLanot pic.twitter.com/9ssPtsTDtm– Taha Bouhafs (@T_Bouhafs) December 5, 2021
At the end of the meeting, about fifty people, identified by the police as belonging to the Zouaves, posed for a photo, chanting “We are at home”, according to AFP. A little after, members of Zouaves Paris posted on their Telegram channel, called Ouest Casual, photos and videos taken near the Villepinte exhibition center.
Some have already been convicted of other acts
This is not the first time that the Zouaves have been suspected of having violently assaulted people. “They have by far one of the most violent pedigrees of all far-right groups”, assures Jean-Yves Camus in West France.
From their creation, they have mounted actions “against supporters with Algerian flags during the Football World Cup in 2018, against NPA activists as part of a” yellow vests “demonstration in January 2019, against a journalist from France Inter on the sidelines of a parade of La Manif pour tous, in January 2020, and against the support of the Adama Traoré committee in the metro in June 2020 “, identifies Mediapart (article reserved for subscribers).
In June 2020, the Zouaves Paris also claimed responsibility for the attack with baseball bats and tear gas on Saint-Sauveur, an emblematic bar of the anti-fascist movement in the Ménilmontant district. Six and ten months in prison were required in mid-November against two ultra-right activists, including Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier. The judgment is due on January 21 by the Paris court.
Marc de Cacqueray–Valmenier was also sentenced, in January 2019, to six months suspended prison sentence for violence during the demonstration of “yellow vests” on December 1, 2018 in Paris. As for the December 5 attack in Villepinte, the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for “the acts of violence committed inside the meeting “ and entrusted it to the territorial security 93.
They are subject to a dissolution procedure
After having dissolved Génération Identitaire in March 2021 and launched proceedings against Alvarium, an ultra-right Angevin group, at the end of October, the Minister of the Interior announced on Sunday that he had initiated proceedings against the Zouaves. “Ithere will be a contradictory like every time I did this, recalled Gérald Darmanin. If the contradictory proves us right, in any case if we think that we are right, we will dissolve this de facto grouping in the Council of Ministers and the Council of State, once again I hope, will prove us right. “
Although the members have not filed statutes to form an association, their small group may correspond to “a de facto group” likely to commit “violent acts against people or property”, according to the dissolution criteria defined by the Internal Security Code.