On the weekend of December 14 and 15, royalist militants commemorated the Battle of Le Mans, in the Sarthe prefecture. Gathered in the city center, they paid tribute to the 15 000 Vendean soldiers massacred by republican forces in 1793.
On the sidelines of this rally, several nationalist militants targeted leftist bars and “confronted” anti-fascist activists, reported anti-conservative channel BFMTV.
“Every year, the ‘Souvenir Vendéen’ commemorates the massacre by the Republicans of the Vendeans at Le Mans in 1793,” explained Christophe Counil, deputy mayor of security. The two camps then clashed in front of bars in the city center.
The action was claimed by the group Ouest Casual, which also clashed with Antifa activists who came for a counter-demonstration. “Despite numerous calls from the ‘Antifa’ to disrupt the Vendée commemoration, our event did take place. A hundred guys present to prevent the disturbers,” the organisation noted. Five of its members were arrested by the police during the clashes.
When questioned, a member of Action Française rejected any involvement in the violence, stressing that the demonstration had been declared and that it had “gone well”.
“Our instructions are very clear, we prohibit any violent action,” he said. On Twitter, the socialist mayor of Le Mans Stéphane Le Foll condemned the “unacceptable behavior” of a gang “of the far right” who came to Le Mans “to break”. But the conservative students denounced the “fake news” on social media.
Torrent de délires et de faux dans les médias nationaux et locaux.
▶️ Les quelques dégradations à l'extérieur de deux bars, ne sont pas un "saccage" du centre-ville du Mans et en aucun cas le fait de l'Action française.#FakeNews pic.twitter.com/Te2vEFIVz5— Action Française (@actionfrancaise) December 16, 2019
On Wednesday, complaints were made to the police station after at least thirty hooded people attacked the terrace of Webb Ellis, a bar in the historic heart of Rennes at around 8:30 pm.
Their target was the meeting of editors and supporters of L’Étudiant libre, a student newspaper that claims to be conservative.
Thirty far-left activists attacked the Webb Ellis bar, on Place des Lices, in Rennes. They knocked over the tables and chairs on the terrace and doused the face of a young man with a liquid, probably ammonia. The latter was taken to hospital.
A nearby shopkeeper told French daily Le Télégramme: “It came very quickly. It was around 8:30 pm. They flooded in like a horde of savages. I had to lock the door of the establishment. We all stayed locked up.”
L’extrême gauche s’est manifestée à notre soirée à Rennes ! Soutien à nos relais ! pic.twitter.com/wcs9gk7PlK
— L'étudiant Libre™ (@LEtudiant_Libre) November 27, 2019
Called to the scene, the police did not arrest the troublemakers, who had already left when they arrived. The action was as violent as it was quick. An investigation was immediately opened for aggravated violence. The prosecution confirmed that a complaint had been made.
These facts, recalled other recent events. On Thursday October 17, another bar in downtown Rennes, l’Été Indien had rented its room to the nationalist and royalist movement. A hundred people with hidden faces and umbrellas had strolled through the city center, tagging the walls.
According to a well-informed source, the investigators drew “parallels” between these two cases. They noted in particular that the extreme left group Defense collective, has been “hyperactive in Rennes at the moment”.
“Last Saturday, the latter, who had infiltrated the Yellow Vests, forced the Grand Quartier shopping center to close. Also on Saturday, this time with edgy feminists, they were also the source of tags and clashes during the demonstration against violence against women. Finally in the evening, they broke a window and tagged the bar L’Été Indien, rue Saint-Melaine on the grounds that the latter had hosted an extreme right meeting several weeks earlier… ”
That has fueled the anger of merchants in downtown Rennes. In Place Sainte-Anne, a shopkeeper explains: “We are fed up. […] My employees are scared when they get home at night. For my part, I have never been afraid before, now I am. My daughter no longer dares to go out. Place Sainte-Anne has a disgusting atmosphere. Between work, tags, homeless people … And then this violence. There is too much violence. It’s been going on for years, it’s getting worse. We have known the CPE, Notre-Dame-des-Landes, the labor law, the Yellow Vests … And I’m not talking about the dealers. We do nothing. People still have the right to be right! We are in France. It’s amazing to see such things.”
Also in Rennes, far-left activists attacked Action Française activists during a student general assembly last week.
Several members of the royalist movement French Action (AF) were also attacked by activists of the far left during a student general assembly, organised at the IEP of Rennes, on Monday, to discuss the week of demonstrations, of Macron’s pension reform and student insecurity.
Once installed in the amphitheater, the royalist students were, once again, insulted and threatened by militants of the extreme left, who called to expel them manu militari. “Before we start, we’ll clear the fachos […] Surround them! Surround them!” Twenty of his comrades, ready to fight, then started attacking the conservative participants.