Royalist Parade Honouring Joan of Arc Banned by Paris Police

It's been 193 years since they overthrew the last legitimate King and they're being invaded by jihadists, but they're still more worried about us. Vive le Très haut, très puissant et très excellent Prince, Louis XX, Par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France et de Navarre, Roi Très-chrétien!

From The European Conservative

By Hélène De Lauzun

The ban follows instructions given directly by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who on Tuesday, May 9th, expressly requested that any demonstration originating from “the ultra-Right or the extreme Right be banned.”

The traditional parade in honour of St. Joan of Arc, organised each year by the royalist movement Action Française, scheduled to take place on Avenue de l’Opéra in central Paris on Sunday, May 14th, has been banned by the Paris police prefecture. 

Action Française has responded by announcing that it will file an appeal under the special procedure of référé-liberté to allow it to take place. Such an appeal to an administrative judge may be made in the event of an emergency: if an administrative decision seriously and illegally affects a fundamental right, such as freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, right to property, etc.

Action Française, a royalist and nationalist movement, has organised a national tribute to St. Joan of Arc, every year since its establishment in 1912, gathering around the equestrian statue of the saint at the Place des Pyramides—a stone’s throw from the Louvre—on the edge of the famous Rue de Rivoli in the historic centre of Paris. As Action Française has noted, this parade has been held without interruption since its foundation—except for the years when France was under Nazi occupation, and a temporary suspension in 1990-1991. 

St. Joan of Arc, secondary patron saint of France, is honoured as a symbol of sovereignty and resistance to internal and external enemies. She is also recognised as the one who defended the throne of King Charles VII in a period of turmoil and allowed his coronation in Reims.

The prefectural ban follows instructions given directly by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who on Tuesday, May 9th, expressly requested that any demonstration originating from “the ultra-right or the extreme right be banned.” 

Darmanin’s order is an obvious reaction to the wave of emotion raised in the political and media world following a demonstration held on May 6th organised by a tiny group, the Comité du 9 Mai (Committee of 9 May). Authorised by the prefecture, that demonstration commemorated the 29th anniversary of the death of Sébastien Deyzieu, a far-Right activist who died accidentally in 1994. The demonstrators marched dressed in black, many of them wearing masks, displaying black flags marked with the Celtic cross and chanting at the end of the rally “Europe, jeunesse, révolution” (Europe, Youth, Revolution), the slogan of the GUD (Groupe d’Union Défense)—one of the most famous far-Right groups in the 1970s.

No serious link can be established between this handful of activists and the Action Française royalist movement, but the minister of the interior intends to show firmness, even if it means making ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater.’

The police ban also extends to the Action Française conference day that was to be held at the gates of Paris on Saturday, May 13th, on the theme “France in danger.” Other demonstrations planned in Paris are also subject to bans. On the same day, the Liberté-Vérité-Citoyens et Gilets Jaunes collective, which was organising a demonstration “against the downgrading of France,” is also banned from marching.

Two other rallies, organised on Sunday by the associations Les Nationalistes and Penser la France on the occasion of the national day of Joan of Arc, were similarly banned.