by D
Organized by Génération Identitaire (Generation Identity), the French branch of the European ‘identitarian’ movement, the Paris prefecture of police took the unusual step of banning the already authorized march, branding the anti-immigration youth outfit ‘extreme right’, and warning of the threat of violence from ‘determined’, ‘organized’, ‘masked’ and ‘highly mobile’ extreme left groups seeking to disrupt the event.
Lawyers for Génération Identitaire failed to over-turn the ban Saturday morning, and organizers described it as a politically motivated decision to silence public resistance to the taking root of Islamism across France. They also pointed to the setting of a worrying precedent; the use of counter protests as an excuse for the state to ban legitimate assemblies.
The prohibition comes at a time when left wing protests, authorized by the prefecture, routinely end up with anarchist and extremist elements damaging property and clashing with police.
Paris police prefect, Michel Delpuech, came in for particular criticism on conservative media sites for the decision to ban the march. The police chief, appointed by the outgoing socialist administration earlier this year, had previously earned criticism for comparing graffiti on the wall of a mosque to the beginning of the Nazi’s anti-Jewish Kristallnacht pogrom.