Far-Right Nationalist Monarchists March in Paris

PARIS (05-10) – The annual royalist tribute organized by the far-right nationalist promonarchist French political movement L’Action Française during the national holiday, Fête nationale de Jeanne d’Arc et du patriotisme, took place on May 10, featuring a parade, brief speeches, and flower-laying at the golden statue of France’s patron saint in the Place des Pyramides.

The Fête commemorates both the victory and martyrdom of Joan of Arc, a peasant farmer’s daughter who, in 1429, believed herself divinely guided to lead the French army to a decisive victory over the English at Orléans during the Hundred Years’ War. For all her efforts, in 1431 she was taken captive under British rule in Normandy, tried as a heretic, convicted and burned to death at the stake.

Facing the golden statue of the Catholic martyr mounted on a horse high above the Place des Pyramides, the crowd of several hundred members of L’Action Français from departments across the country held numerous banners and flags as they listened to speeches and proclamations made by members of the far-right, extreme nationalist, monarchist movement. The main banner facing the crowd below the statue proclaimed the group’s motto “Everything national is ours.”

Among the crowd, too, were banners proclaiming that “Freedoms are not granted; they are taken; Long live France, long live the king!” and claiming to be “Faithful on both sides.”

The rally was the conclusion of a march that had started earlier at the Place de L’Opera which was carefully monitored by many French police and officers from the CRS Compagnies républicaines de sécurité who are a highly trained crowd and riot control force.

After hearing from several speakers, a short ceremony was held where medals were pinned on the lapels of participants followed by the singing of a melody before blue and yellow smoke bombs were ignited. Afterward, people posed for photos in front on the statue before the crowd dissipated into the city.

As the rise of far-right extremists, nationalist political movements and neo-Nazis and others continue to gain momentum across Europe, governments remain vigilant in guarding against insurrection and civil unrest in their wake.

In 2023, because of the movement’s extreme nationalist rhetoric and its call for reestablishing the monarchy, they were banned by the Interior Ministry from holding their annual parade and conference. The government’s intent was to disallow them and other extremists from having a public platform to promote their views and ideology.

L’Action Française reacted by seeking the right to assemble and speak freely by suing in court under the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” as guaranteed under the French Constitution of the Fifth Republic. The ban thus became a legal dispute over “freedom of assembly versus public-order concerns” that ultimately was reversed by the courts allowing the parade to continue. The great irony being that in a democracy even those who oppose the government have the right to do so which is viewed as a test of its constitutional guarantees.

L’Action Française movement was created in 1898 in reaction to left-wing intellectuals “Dreyfusards” who supported Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, who was convicted in 1894 after being falsely accused of treason for allegedly passing French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. Dreyfus was convicted of the charges and sent to Devils Island under a life sentence and later returned to France for a second trail. Even though the government knew who the real traitor was, Dreyfuss was convicted a second time, pardoned and released. By 1906 he was exonerated and later reinstated in the French Army serving throughout World War I.

The “Dreyfus Affair” as the scandal became known divided the Third French Republic until its dissolution in 1906. As such, the historically antisemitic group has falsely depicted Jews as a threat to the French nation. With the rise of antisemitism in France and across Europe, governments here continue their vigilance in monitoring all extremist groups across the spectrum.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini
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