Bubbling under France’s political landscape is an range of ultra-right groups, a subculture that shot to the country’s attention when a young man slapped President Emmanuel Macron and blurted out a centuries-old royalist cry.
Ignored by most individuals, ultra-rightist groups are considered progressively dangerous despite their small following and therefore are on the radar of government. Many arrests have been made and many groups prohibited, including one this year. Challenges to the French identity tend to be in the center of their ideologies.
During Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Macron discussed the episode a day before at a little town in the southeast Drome area. “No violence could be considered trivial in the nation,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal mentioned later. However, Macron worried it was”an isolated act by a violent person” that wouldn’t stop his immediate contact with the people.
The city of Tain-l’Hermitage has been the president’s latest stop on a tour designed to”feel the heartbeat of the country” that has been laid low from the coronavirus and trying to get back on its feet.
Two individuals, the man who assaulted the president and a friend, were arrested and under questioning Wednesday. Neither the guy identified in French media as the slapper, Damien Tarel, 28, nor his friend, identified only as Arthur C., had police documents, the local prosecutor said.
Tarel’s motives remained unclear, but it had been his shout”Montjoie! Saint Denis!” As he slapped Macron’s cheek with his right hand, who pointed to the aggressor’s potential interest in the very small royalist knee motion. Social networking articles revealed he followed royalist TV channels and a smattering of all extreme-right figures.
The extreme-right pro-monarchist team Action Francaise took responsibility. Action Francaise, born from the early 20th century, did not assert a role in Tuesday’s slapping episode, but hours later tweeted nearly playfully,”Vive la tarte a Tain,” a play on words combining the slang for”smack” (tarte), the French desert, tarte tatin, and Tain-l’Hermitage, in which the incident happened.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen was among political chiefs to swiftly condemn the assault. Le Pen, a candidate in 2022 presidential elections, has spent years working to rid her National Rally celebration of extremist elements who gravitated around her father’s National Front party, which she renamed.
Obscure to the majority of France, ultra-right moves are a priority to the radar of researchers.
A probe in an alleged plot found in 2018 against Macron with a mini-group whose associates were scattered around France is still in progress. The group, also called Les Barjols, was ordered .
