Violent thugs and Nazi salutes: the far right marched in Paris this Saturday

Many passersby couldn't believe their eyes. A far-right parade with a militia-like feel saw a thousand activists march under large black banners bearing Celtic crosses this Saturday, May 10, in Paris. At the end of this annual parade of the "May 9 Committee" (C9M), a few leading figures of the movement gathered in the private courtyard of a building on Rue des Chartreux (6th arrondissement). Hidden from view, the participants successively extended their arms, according to footage of the events obtained by Libération. The onlookers, who had been outraged a few minutes earlier by this "Nazi" parade in the heart of Paris, were right.

Around 3 p.m., in the chic Port-Royal neighborhood, in a square bordering Rue d'Assas, hundreds of far-right activists had begun to close ranks, flanked from a distance by the police but above all by a security service of mostly hooded thugs. The movement's elite were there, like Marc de Cacqueray-Valménier, an ultraviolent thirty-something, leader of the French "revolutionary nationalists" and their historic flagship group, the GUD. M