A thousand French nationalists have held a massive torchlight rally despite authorities in Paris banning them from holding their annual march through the city to honour a fallen activist.
Paris police banned the May 9th Committee parade, which was due to take place on Saturday afternoon, saying there was a high risk of public violence amid a “very tense political context” due to the murder of right-wing activist Quentin Deranque by 40 Antifa militants in Lyon in February.
The ban was upheld by a court on Friday, and a judge cited alleged violent incidents at the 2025 march, which was attended by about 2,000 nationalists from across France and Europe, the wearing of masks by demonstrators, and alleged Nazi salutes and “xenophobic slogans”, Le Monde reported.
Police then arrested 94 people in Paris on Saturday in relation to the banned rally and a counter-protest by left-wing extremist groups who planned to disrupt the nationalist march, AFP reported.
But on Sunday evening local time the May 9th Committee shared photos of a rally held the previous night captioned “a thousand nationalists present to pay homage to Sebastien Deyzieu”.
Deyzieu, 22, was killed in 1994 while being chased by police during a banned protest in Paris, and nationalists have gathered to mark his death every year since, with numbers swelling in recent years, while a ban on the 2025 march was overturned by the courts.
“Despite the intense politico-media repression and the multiple bans that have come down on the May 9th Committee this week, our commemoration did indeed take place,” the group wrote.
“Neither the police state, nor the red judges, nor the antifa militias will ever be strong enough to stop us from honouring our martyrs. The C9M thanks all the movements and activists present, as well as the nationalist comrades who came from across Europe.”
The images show activists with flaming torches, flares, drums and Celtic cross flags standing in formation with a banner saying “Sebastien Deyzieu present!”.
The May 9th Committee said on Saturday it also had a number of smaller proposals to commemorate Deyzieu’s death rejected, including the laying of a wreath, and called the decisions “liberty killing”.
“While Paris is regularly handed over to the violence of thugs and the far-left, the Interior Minister deployed the full force of the state this afternoon to harass and arrest our supporters, who are growing ever more numerous in responding to our call,” it wrote on social media.
After the court’s decision on Friday activist Jean-Eudes Gannat said the police ban had made violence more likely, with more than 2,000 nationalists having converged on the city.
“It is paradoxical, to say the least, that nationalist activists, who lost one of their own, lynched to death on the ground this year, are being forbidden from demonstrating because there would be risks of unrest,” he said.
“If people are prevented from organising their activities as normally guaranteed by the Constitution, we risk clashes between individuals.”
Mr Gannat also took issue with the police using Nazi salutes as a pretext for the ban, saying they were made by Spanish activists who were unaware they were illegal in France.
Header image: The nationalist rally (May 9th Committee).
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