Faced with the riots, French citizens wanted to help the police, LFI accuses the far right – RT in French

Faced with riots and looting, French citizens tried to fight back or lend a hand to the police. Actions that are sometimes part of a political context since they are carried out by groups close to the radical right.

“In Lorient, the police let a militia of members of the far right do their thing,” tweeted Mathilde Panot, LFI deputy (La France Insoumise) on July 3. The reason for his outrage? In this city of Morbihan, on June 30, groups of individuals attacked looters and rioters, controlling them in a sometimes muscular way and handcuffing them with the help of flex clamps.

Those who present themselves as an “anti-thug squad” have in any case shown determination. Sporty looking, hood on the head and neckband raised on the face, they intervened in a group, extinguishing a fire and immobilizing several individuals whom they handed over to the authorities.

“We let it happen at the start of the evening, because it relieved us,” an anonymous police source told the Telegram. The same source specifies, however, that at the end of the evening, the police decided to disperse this group, “realizing that they were going a little strong”.

Lorient is home to a naval base where marines and marine commandos are stationed, but the Forfusco (Maritime Force of marines and commandos), responded to the Telegram not having “heard of this kind of action among our young or less young people”.

Do the facts deserve the “investigation” demanded by Mathilde Panot? What is certain is that their actions are provided for by law, Article 73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure providing that “in cases of flagrant crime or flagrant misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment, any person has standing to apprehend the perpetrator and bring him before the nearest judicial police officer”.

In Lorient, the anti-breakers group “relieved” the police

If the “anti-thugs brigade” of Lorient did not claim any political affiliation, this is not the case for other groups who faced rioters. In Angers, the weekend was very agitated around the premises of RED (Right-wing student rally), an association which is in line with Alvarium, a group qualified as radical right and dissolved by Gérald Darmanin in 2021 On Friday, June 30, members of this group violently attacked participants in a prohibited demonstration against police violence. Some of them were reportedly recognized, armed with baseball bats, attacking the participants in the rally.

According to the RED, its militants would have only defended their premises, while they saw “an ultra-violent black bloc of a hundred individuals approaching, chanting threats (“we are going to kill you”)”. As part of this violence, the authorities carried out a search of the association’s premises on the morning of July 3.

For the rest of the weekend, the RED office was targeted by groups of rioters. We can see in videos shot by local residents that the occupants of the premises, protected by improvised shields made of plywood boards and armed with broomsticks, repel the attackers.

In Chambery, on the evening of July 1, a group of about twenty people gathered to the cry of “French people, wake up, you are at home here! “. According to Mediapart, “These would include activists from the far-right group Edelweiss Pays de Savoie. An account of this action published by the authors of the rally on Telegram mentions “clashes” and praises “the scum on the mat […] the nationalists more efficient than the police”, according to Liberation.

Similar scenes in Lyon, July 2, where several videos show crowds of a few dozen people chanting “Bleu-blanc-rouge”, “France for the French”, “We are at home”. However, this demonstration did not lead to clashes with the rioters. It was however dispersed by the police, who notably used tear gas.

We also see that ordinary citizens are trying to defend their property, like these two individuals filmed in Metz, patrolling around their vehicle, armed with… katanas.

For its part, the French government wanted to be reassuring. Emmanuel Macron said on July 4 “very cautious” about the return to calm after several nights of riots in France, but he judged that “the peak” had “passed”, in front of some 250 mayors of cities affected by the violence and receptions at the presidency.