2024-02-07 13:51:24
The Lille ultra-right association La Citadelle, which was banned from organizing an evening entitled “Let them return to Africa” in February 2023, was dissolved on Wednesday by the Council of Ministersannounced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, on his X account, Wednesday February 7.
La Citadelle, a bar opened in 2016 which presents itself as a “patriot bar” and an “identity house”justified by “its publications, the comments of its members and its slogans the implementation of a xenophobic ideology and provoking hatred and discrimination”according to the dissolution decree.
The procedure was initiated at the beginning of December by Gérald Darmanin, in the wake of the dissolution of another small ultra-right group, La Division Martel, which took place after a demonstration resembling a punitive expedition in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) in reaction to the death of young Thomas in Crépol.
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Comments made on different television sets
According to the decree, the director of La Citadelle, Aurélien Verhassel, “made comments publicly, during interviews or on television sets, claiming to reserve membership in his association for people of “white race” and to reject Islam in France and in Europe, notably most recently during the show “Touche pas à mon poste!” broadcast on the C8 channel on February 15, 2023, during which he declared that there were too many Muslims in France..
An accusation that the leader denied in mid-December during a press conference, arguing that the channel was edited when in reality he was quoting “a passage attributed to De Gaulle”. Aurélien Verhassel also denounced “suffering uninterrupted legal harassment for nine years”. Contacted Wednesday by Agence France-Presse, Aurélien Verhassel could not be reached.
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“Thank you to the minister. Those who call for hatred have no place in our country! »reacted for her part the mayor of Lille, Martine Aubry, on. In February 2023, Gérald Darmanin had obtained the ban on a controversial evening within La Citadelle, entitled “Let them return to Africa”, in reference to the remarks made in the hemicycle by the deputy Grégoire de Fournas (National Rally ).
Considered the headquarters of the Lille ultra-right, the La Citadelle bar was closed in mid-February by the town hall, but administrative justice authorized it to reopen at the end of February, considering that the city had not followed the appropriate procedure. After La Division Martel and La Citadelle, the traditionalist Catholic identity movement Academia Christiana should also be dissolved, according to an announcement made by Gérald Darmanin on December 10.
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