Rarely have the organisers of a political meeting in France been so accepting of violence at an event. On Sunday December 5th, during a political meeting held by far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour at Villepinte north of Paris, some of those in charge of security thanked people who had beaten up activists from the anti-racist group SOS Racisme. In particular they thanked members of the neo-Nazi group 'Zouaves Paris'.
In videos shown on Huffington Post website and BFMTV news channel the voices of two members of staff can be heard to say: “Thanks for coming”; “Thanks for being here!”; “It's a pleasure to see we can count on you”; “It would have been difficult without you. You did the job! The gendarmes are here now, thanks for having been there! Go back to the meeting. Have a good evening!”.
Even given the long history of the confrontations, violence and expulsions of journalists that have punctuated the political meetings of the far-right Front National, and continued under its new name of Rassemblement National, the role that Éric Zemmour's organisation allowed this radical group - with its background of hooliganism - to perform in the hall is still surprising. Their role was that of a militia left in charge of the dirty work, meting out the blows rather than the security team itself.
When he was questioned about the violence at the end of the meeting Éric Zemmour himself made no comment and greeted reporters with a lengthy silence. At the time Olivier Ubéda, his director of events, said: “Who's come and used violence? It's not us.” Mediapart contacted the candidate, his advisor Sarah Knafo, Olivier Ubéda and the man in charge of security for the campaign, Albéric Dumont, but no one responded.
On Monday December 6th the prosecution authorities at Bobigny, north east of Paris, began an investigation into the the violence that marred the political rally. This includes the punching of Éric Zemmour by an unknown man who was rapidly arrested. But it also includes the violence against activists from the association SOS Racisme: as they stood on chairs to reveal tee shirts with the words “No to racism” emblazoned on them, they were violently struck and expelled by a group of masked individuals.
On Tuesday morning, questioned by Jean-Jacques Bourdin on RMC radio, Zemmour said that he “obviously condemned all the violence” that punctuated his meeting. But at the same time he criticised the SOS Racisme activists, calling them “provocateurs” and “handout seekers”. “I don't feel responsible for it at all,” he added, pointing out that he was the “candidate for the maintenance of law and order”.
Also on Tuesday, events boss Olivia Ubéda told Mediapart that he had not been informed of the presence of 'Zoauves Paris' nor had he “thanked anyone”. Questioned about his condemnation of the violence he replied: “Yes, just like the provocation and the violence from the undercover antifas who came to disrupt.” Olivier Ubéda also stated that the “pictures are clear” in showing that the “first chairs thrown at people came from [the antifas]”. He said: “Everyone went out. Thank goodness. Fed up with being held hostage by violent people. Wherever they come from.” In reality, the images show that the Zouaves group came back into the hall after the incident.
It was late on Monday that Zouaves Paris claimed responsibility for the violence in a video clip released on the messenger service Telegram. It spoke ironically about the blows struck and the injuries caused, and the words were set to the music of a song with the well-known chorus 'Bim, bam, boom'. One of the individuals who attacked the anti-racist activists is indeed a member of the Zouaves. His name is Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, also known as Marc Hassin, whom is considered to be their leader. In the images collected by Mediapart he can be seen landing blows on a person who has fallen to the floor of the hall. The newspaper Libération also mentioned his involvement in the violence.
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It was around 6pm on Sunday, as the activists from SOS Racisme began their pacific action, that dozens of young men leapt forward and rained punches on them. SOS Racisme's lawyer, Ivan Terel, said that around ten complaints were going to be filed by the anti-racist group's members. “One activist had his head split open, another took some heavy punches, some people were trampled on. They really spent a terrible quarter-of-an-hour just for a tee shirt,” he said. In the photo below one can make out Cacqueray-Valmenier (circled in red), with his neck warmer pulled up over his nose, but still identifiable from his distinctive trainers. He twice landed two blows on the back of an anti-racist militant who was being 'evacuated' - after a fashion - by security.
Enlargement : Illustration 2
The Zouaves Paris members gathered again at the exit after monitoring the expulsion of the SOS Racisme members. It was at this point that the group was thanked, in the entrance room of the hall. Once again Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier was among them. He signalled to his troops to re-enter the hall. This was done to cries of: “Everyone hates the antifas!”
Late on Sunday members of the ultra-right outfit gathered for a group photo outside the entrance to the local train station, with their motorbike helmets - and umbrellas - in their hands. They gathered in the station shouting 'this is our home turf'. Mediapart has been able to identify another long-standing member of Zouaves Paris who was present, Bastien M.
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The ultra-right group then headed for Place Saint-Michel in Paris for their last photo op of the day; around 50 of them were present for this, with one of the group tracing the letter 'Z' for 'Zouaves'. The expression 'faire le zouave' today means to 'play the fool' in French but the word has military origins. The Zouaves were a category of light infantry regiments serving in the French Army, in particular in North Africa, in much of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. There was also an infantry battalion called the Papal Zouaves who defended the Papal States in the 1860s; an offshoot from this fought for the French against the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian War.
This modern group, Zouaves Paris, has inherited the mantle of the old ultra-right student group the Groupe Union Défense (GUD), and in recent years has carried out more and more attacks in central Paris. These include attacks on supporters waving Algerian flags during the football World Cup of 2018; against activists from the hard-left NPA who were taking part in a 'yellow vest' protest in January 2019; against a student from the University of Nanterre in west Paris in November 2019; against a journalist from France Inter public broadcaster on the edge of a demonstration in January 2020; against a committee supporting Adama Traoré – who died in police custody in 2016 – in the metro in June 2020, and, four days later, against Le Saint-Sauveur bar, which is the HQ of the Paris anti-fascist movement.
As a result of that last attack five members of the group - including Cacqueray-Valmenier and Bastien M. - stood trial in November 2021. At the end of proceedings the prosecution called for prison terms of six and ten months for two of the accused; the court's verdict is due in January 2022.
Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier, who is 23, has already taken part in many Zouaves actions and is known to the police. In recent years he has given particular focus to developing links with several Ukrainian groups. He went to Kiev in December 2019 to attend a National Socialist black metal (NSBM) festival and was filmed there making gestures that resembled Nazi salutes. But most of all he used his visit to meet various figures from the local far right. For example, he met Helena Semenyaka, who is in charge of international affairs for the far-right National Corps party, which in turn is closely associated with the Azov regiment, a Ukrainian nationalist unit tinged with Nazism. He also went to a kick-boxing championship where members of the neo-Nazi group AVTONOMS.NS were present.
Marc de Cacqueray-Valmenier did not respond when contacted by Mediapart via his lawyer and his Facebook account.
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Other figures and groups from the far right were also present at the Zemmour meeting. Earlier in the day royalists from the group Action Française handed out their newspapers at the Parc des Expositions at Villepinte. A photo on Instagram posted by one of them showed around forty activists posing for a photo in front of the main hall, though it is not known whether they attended the speech itself.
Some, however, definitely did go inside the political meeting itself, as their posts on social media show. One was Aurélien Verhassel, who runs a bar called La Citadelle in the northern city of Lille that is associated with the nationalist right. Another was Étienne Cormier, who was a member of the now dissolved group Génération Identitaire.
As well as the anti-rascist activists, journalists were also the targets of violence and insults at the meeting. Teams from the 'Quotidien' and also the team from Mediapart's broadcast programme 'À l’air libre' had to leave the hall following shouts and punches. It was not possible to identify who were responsible for this. On Monday, Mediapart and the two journalists attacked filed a formal complaint with the prosecution authorities over “violence and threats”.
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The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter