MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France bans extreme right group which incited hatred, violence and attacks immigrants

Minister Darmanin said the group had links to ”ultra right groups from which (GI) receives logistical support”

France agreed on Wednesday to ban the far-right group Generation Identity. Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said it took into account the group's “structure and military organization,” adding that GI can be regarded “as having the character of a private militia.”

 

Darmanin noted in the decree the group – that was banned by the government for “discrimination, hatred and violence” –, had links to ”ultra right groups from which (GI) receives logistical support,“ noting that it received donations from Brenton Tarrant, the terrorist behind the 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In the decree posted on Darmanin’s Twitter, the minister pronounced the Lyon-based association illegal, and said its publications and actions spread ”an ideology inciting hatred, violence and discrimination of individuals, based on their origin, their race or their religion.“

Government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said: ”With that decision we are putting an end to sometimes violent actions from the group.“

GI has gained notoriety in recent years after staging a number of operations to block migrants from entering the country.

In January, with around 30 GI members congregating at the Col du Portillon mountain pass on the French-Spanish border, the group called for a surveillance operation to ”defend Europe.”

It was the latest in a string of demonstrations by GI members, often involving the deployment of fences at border crossings. In August 2019, the group's leader and two other members were handed six-month prison sentences after they set up a blockade in the French Alps and rented two helicopters to search for migrants.