The Distorted Narrative: Debunking False Claims of Extremist Clashes in Angers, France

Looted shops and streets in revolt are certainly nothing new for France and now, the squares are lit up by the death of the young 17-year-old French-Algerian Nahel, killed by a police officer in Nanterre. Whole suburbs, the so-called banlieues, populated by second generations of mainly North African origin, left their homes to demonstrate.

The news

According to the newspaper Il Primato Nazionale, in the night between 3 and 4 July a group of French demonstrators of African origin and anti-fascists attacked the local Red, a meeting place for an organization of “young identities” of the Rassemblement des étudiants de right (RED). All of this, reports the newspaper, happened “for having dared to rebel against the raids and looting of foreign hordes by opposing those who were causing chaos in their city”.

The newspaper goes on to also accuse the French police, a major absentee “not received”. «Of the videos, released on social networks by the Angers militants themselves, the absence of the forces of order is striking, leaving the Red activists deliberately at the mercy of delinquents and savages, alone against everyone while the mainstream press and politicians provide their nice service of distortion of the facts», writes the newspaper.

Suddenly, however, the police intervened by closing the place with an administrative act and, in a second article, Il Primato Nazionale reports the news: «Authorities who have decided to attack not the anti-fascists, well known in Angers, nor the scum of second and third generation, but the patriots who in those days remained at their posts repelling the attacks. Not only that: following the judicial search that took place last Monday in the premises of the Red, in Rue du Cornet, the town hall of Angers issued an administrative provision for closure due to disturbance of public order», writes the newspaper.

Il debunking

The story begins on 30 June, the date on which a group of citizens organizes a demonstration against police violence in Angers. The event is short-lived because the prefecture prevents it from taking place and the demonstrators are scattered by the agents present.

In those same hours a group of boys belonging to the Rassemblement des étudiants de droite (RED) is patrolling the streets of the French city of Angers to defend them from rioters. With them, some with their faces covered and some not, they brought bars and baseball bats.

According to sources reported by Liberation, the approximately 15 men in the group were recognized as members of the Alvarium, an organization dissolved by Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin in 2021 on grounds of violence and racism and restored shortly after under the name of Red Angers . The minister’s decree described the group as “involved in acts of violence” and since 2018 the propagator of “a discourse and ideas that equate immigration and Islam with threats that the French must fight”.

Scattered by tear gas, a group of protesters headed towards the center of the square, where members of the organization patrolled. In the clash, members of Red Angers attacked civilians, one of whom, according to the prefecture, “was transferred in relative emergency to the Angers CHU by the firefighters”.

Since that meeting every evening in Rue de Cornet, home of the Red club, the rioters have met with the Red Angers between throwing bottles and firecrackers. On 3 July, the Alvarium, the name of the former venue now occupied by the Rassemblement des étudiants de droite, was raided by the police and several members were arrested.

The following night, between 3 and 4 July, about fifty demonstrators gathered in the direction of the venue and the clashes intensified until the police arrived. Contrary to what is reported by Il Primato Nazionale, the police forces intervened by dispersing the demonstrators. Once calm was restored, the prefect and the mayor of Angers took the floor defining “unacceptable the clashes between far-right activists and individuals who respond to calls for violence by the far-left for the fourth consecutive night.” The inhabitants and shopkeepers of rue du Cornet are the first victims».

To culminate it all a real act of urban warfare. On July 4, the Alvarium club was targeted by a mortar shell that exploded from a speeding car. Faced with all this, the town hall made the decision to intervene by closing the place with an administrative act for having hosted members of the far-right organization.

Conclusion

There is no trace of context in the article of Il Primato Nazionale. The newspaper reports a false news presenting it as an isolated event, without describing the background and the causes that led to the clash. In recounting it, the narration describes a salvific role of the “identitarian youth”, however omitting the true identity of this organization and the aggression that took place on June 30 against the demonstrators. To be false, the non-arrival of the police reported by the article is also added. In fact, the police forces showed up on the spot to disperse the crowd of rioters.

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2023-07-09 11:10:28
#Riots #France #fascist #patrols #saving #country

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