 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French. (August 2019)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
The Identitarians Les Identitaires | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Fabrice Robert |
| Founded | 6 April 2003; 22 years ago (2003-04-06) |
| Preceded by | Radical Unity |
| Headquarters | BP 13 06301Nice Cedex 04 |
| Newspaper | Novopress |
| Youth wing | Generation Identity/Generation Identitaire (formerly) |
| Ideology | French nationalism Ethnopluralism Identitarianism Anti-Americanism Anti-Islam Neo-fascism Factions: Neo-Nazism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Colours | Black,Blue |
| Party flag | |
 | |
| Website | |
| les-identitaires.fr | |
Les Identitaires (English:The Identitarians), formerly theBloc identitaire[1] (English:Identitarian Bloc), is anIdentitariannationalist movement inFrance.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Like theFrench New Right, some generally consider the movementfar-right or sometimes as asyncretic mixture of multiple ideologies across thepolitical spectrum.[2][8][9][10][11]
Les Identitaires contain a number of strains of political thought includingnativism,Catholic social teaching,direct democracy,regionalistdecentralisation, andYann Fouere's concept of aEurope of 100 Flags.[5] The group additionally advocates ananti-American andanti-Islamic foreign policy, calling theUnited States andIslam the two major imperialistic threats to Europe.[4]
It was founded in 2003 by some former members ofUnité Radicale and several otheranti-Zionist andNational Bolshevik sympathisers. It includesFabrice Robert [fr], formerUnité Radicale member, former elected representative of theNational Front (FN) and also former member of theNational Republican Movement (MNR), and Guillaume Luyt, former member of the monarchistAction française, former Unité Radicale member, former director of the youth organisation of the FN,National Front Youth (FNJ). Luyt claims inspiration byGuillaume Faye's works in theNouvelle Droite movement.
The movement is widely consideredneo-fascist, although Les Identitaires does not consider itself as such.[3][4] Génération Identitaire was banned in March 2021.[12] On 14 February 2023, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) released a report in which it classified Les Identitaires as a "white nationalist" and "Anti-Muslim" group.[13][14]
It opposes "imperialism, whether it beAmerican or Islamic,"[4] and supports thefar-rightGreat Replacementconspiracy theory.[15]
The Bloc Identitaire runs the agency and website Novopress, that has associates in most of Western Europe and North America.[16]
Novopress presents itself as an "international news agency"[17] founded by Fabrice Robert, a leader of theFrench nationalist organizationBloc Identitaire.[18] Among its managers is Guillaume Luyt, former leader of theFront national de la jeunesse.[19] Patrick Gofman is one of the editors of Novopress.info (French section).[20]
Novopress is politically geared towardsconservative,anti-Islamist and sometimes evenfar right themes. As of 2008[update] Novopress had 13 national editions in Europe and North America, including inIreland,Italy andFrance.
The youth wing of Bloc Identitaire, called in FranceGénération identitaire,[1] orIdentity Generation, expanded to other European states soon after its creation in 2012, includingGenerazione Identitaria in Italy andIdentitäre Bewegung in Germany and Austria.[21][22] Other youth wings are also present in theCzech Republic, theNetherlands,Belgium,Slovenia,Hungary, and theUnited Kingdom andIreland. France banned Generation Identity in March 2021.[23]
The Bloc Identitaire has been accused of intentionally distributing several popular soups containingpork in order to exclude religious Jews or Muslims; in Strasbourg, Nice, Paris, and in Antwerp with the association Antwerpse Solidariteit close to theVlaams Belang. These so-called "identity soups" ("soupes identitaires") have been forbidden by the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin in Strasbourg on 21 January 2006, and called "discriminatory and xenophobic" by MEPCatherine Trautmann (PS) in a 19 January 2006 letter to theHigh authority for the struggle against discrimination and for equality (HALDE).[citation needed]
This ethno-regionalist movement has also organised a campaign against the rap groupSniper in 2003, which was taken up by the conservativeUnion for a Popular Movement (UMP), leading to the cancellation of several concerts of the band. UMP deputyNadine Morano interpolated Interior Minister (UMP)Nicolas Sarkozy on this theme, while 200 UMP deputies, led byFrançois Grosdidier, tried without success to censor several hip-hop bands. Sarkozy criticized the hip-hop group as "ruffians who dishonour France."[citation needed]
In 2004, the Bloc Identitaire also organized a campaign against Italian writerCesare Battisti, one-time member of the terrorist groupArmed Proletarians for Communism, who was wanted in Italy for an assassination carried out during theYears of Lead, in which he denies responsibility. Battisti accused the "cell of the Italian embassy" of having "financed" the Bloc identitaire's campaign against him (inMa Cavale, p. 160). Battisti was convicted to life sentence in his homeland for a total of 36 charges, including participation in four murders. The French government would subsequently decide to extradite him to Italy, but Battisti escaped to Brazil where he was granted political asylum.
In 2010, they staged a protest in "resistance to the Islamization of France" at theArc de Triomphe (relocated from an earlier planned site inGoutte-d'Or) where people would eat pork and drink grape juice orwine.[24][25] In November 2012 theGénération Identitaire, the youth wing of the BI, occupied the mosque inPoitiers, the site whereCharles Marteldefeated an invading Muslim Moorish force in 732.[5] In June 2018, Facebook banned Generation Identity for violating its policies against extremist content and hate groups.[26]
In December 2018,Al Jazeera produced a documentary entitled "Generation Hate" featuring an undercover journalist who had infiltrated Génération Identitaire. The documentary included undercover footage of Génération Identitaire members in the northern French city ofLille racially abusing and assaulting migrant youths, advocating violence against Muslims, and alleged linkages between Génération Identitaire andFront National.[27] Génération Identitaire's actions were condemned byMayor of LilleMartine Aubry and Prefect of the North Michele Lalande, who advocated prosecuting offenders for inciting hatred and closing downLa Citadelle, which served as a meeting place for location Génération Identitaire members in Lille. Prosecutor Thierry Pocquet Haut-Jussé has also announced an investigation by theCentral Directorate of Public Security into the activities of the Génération Identitaire members.[28]
On 11 July 2019, Germany'sFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency, formally designated theIdentitarian Movement as "a verified extreme right movement against the liberal democratic constitution." The new classification will allow the BfV to use more powerful surveillance methods against the group and its youth wing, Generation Identity. The Identitarian Movement has about 600 members in Germany.[29]
In August 2019, aFrench court sentenced three members of Generation Identity to a six-month jail term, fines of €2,000 each and loss of civic rights for five years, and fined the pan-European organisation €75,000, over an anti-immigrant operation in theAlps. Generation Identity president Clément Gandelin, spokesman Romain Espino and Damien Lefèvre were found guilty of "exercising activities in conditions that could create confusion with a public function". The case was that the operation, involving about 100 of their members at theCol de l'Échelle in April 2018, could have been mistaken for a police action.[15][30]
On 3 March 2021, France banned Génération Identitaire (Generation Identity), as the Interior MinisterGérald Darmanin said the movement incited "discrimination, hatred and violence".[12] A few weeks before, dozens of people protested in Paris against the dissolution. About 200 protesters were estimated to be present.[31][32]
Jordan Bardella, at the time the spokesperson for theNational Rally, posted statements of support for Génération Identitaire. As a result, Facebook removed the posts and suspended certain features of his account.[33]
the group sent out a press release, calling upon "all Parisians … and French" to meet at the Arc de Triomphe Friday to eat ham and drink grape juice
thousands will gather to protest the presence of Muslims in France by drinking alcohol and eating sausage
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
