Dissolution of the Young Guard: "Bruno Retailleau's biggest mistake," predicts Raphaël Arnault

Bruno Retailleau announced on Thursday the dissolution of the Young Guard , a far-left movement founded in 2018 by Raphaël Arnault , who became an LFI deputy last summer, by a decree passed by the Council of Ministers. This anti-fascist movement is accused of inciting violence.

For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, dissolving the Young Guard "is a terrible signal of political nonsense" and a sign of the far right's support. This statement is described as "pathetic" by the Interior Minister's entourage. "It's not the anti-fascist struggle that is at issue, but the methods of the Young Guard," explains a close friend of Bruno Retailleau.

Beauvau claims to rely on a robust case. The decree lists multiple cases of violence, relayed on social media, and judges that the movement "galvanizes its members" by legitimizing violence and organizing combat sports training.

Raphaël Arnault responds that he never claimed responsibility for the violence, preferring to speak of self-defense. He will appeal to the Council of State with the lawyer who had already obtained the annulment of the dissolution of the Earth Uprisings two years ago.

The LFI representative promised Friday at a press conference in Paris that anti-fascism would "continue to live." "This is perhaps Bruno Retailleau's biggest mistake: thinking he's attacking just one organization, when he's attacking our entire social and political movement," he added.

Several organizations (CGT, Attac, NPA, etc.) joined the Young Guard in "solidarity" at its press conference, organized at the scene of a knife attack in February, for which six members of the far-right were charged.

Also threatened with dissolution, the Urgence Palestine collective considered itself "on borrowed time" and brought the French government and Israel closer together in their fight, according to it, "against freedom of expression."