Paris police arrest 59 in clashes after court upholds ban on far-right May 9 march and antifascist counter-rally
Paris police arrested 59 far-right and far-left activists across central Paris on May 9 after the Paris administrative court upheld the prefecture's ban on the Comité du 9-Mai's annual ultranationalist march and an antifascist counter-rally. The prefecture said 32 of those detained were placed in custody for membership of a group preparing violence and for carrying prohibited weapons — including telescopic batons and knives — during dispersal operations at République, Pyramides, Saint-Michel and Montparnasse.
The Paris police prefecture announced on May 9 that 59 ultraright and ultraleft militants had been arrested across the capital, with 32 placed in garde à vue, after officers moved to enforce the prefecture's ban on the Comité du 9-Mai's annual march and on an antifascist counter-rally organised under the slogan "Pas de Nazis dans Paris." The figure was revised upward from an initial nine custody placements that the prefecture had reported earlier in the day; according to the agency, those first nine were ultraright militants.
The arrests were made on charges of "participation à un groupement en vue de commettre des violences, des dégradations, des violences volontaires en réunion" and "port d'armes prohibées (matraques télescopiques, couteaux…)," the prefecture said. The detentions came during mid-afternoon checks in the sectors of République, Pyramides, Saint-Michel and Montparnasse, where police repeatedly dispersed gatherings throughout the day to keep ultraright and ultraleft groups apart.
"Si les manifestants doivent pouvoir se rassembler en toute sécurité, les arrêtés d'interdiction doivent être respectés et les confrontations entre militants d'ultradroite et d'ultragauche ne sauraient être tolérées," the prefecture said in a statement.
The Comité du 9-Mai had planned, as it does every year, a march in honour of Sébastien Deyzieu, an ultranationalist far-right militant who died on May 9, 1994, after falling from the roof of a Paris building while trying to escape from police. To justify banning this year's edition, the prefecture cited public-order disturbances generated by the February 2024 march in Lyon honouring the identitarian militant Quentin Deranque. The Paris administrative court's juge des référés upheld the prefecture's decision.
The antifascist counter-demonstration, scheduled in opposition to the Comité du 9-Mai gathering, was banned under the same prefectural arrêté.