Paris, France — May 9 in Paris was eagerly anticipated by all sides this year: neo-Nazis, anti-fascists and authorities. In 2025, hundreds of French neo-Nazis and their international allies were able to march unhindered through Paris. Images of SS-style formations and masked participants, as well as incidents such as Nazi salutes and repeated racist or homophobic slogans, shocked the public and drew renewed attention to an annual ritual of the French far right.

The march is organized by the Committee of May 9, or C9M, which was formed after the death of 22-year-old neo-Nazi Sébastien Deyzieu, in 1994. Deyzieu fell from a building on May 7, 1994, while fleeing police during a banned demonstration in Paris. He died two days later in a hospital. 

The committee was founded by the historic French neo-Nazi organization GUD, or Groupe Union Défense, of which Deyzieu was a member, along with Jeunesses Nationalistes Révolutionnaires, or JNR, and the youth organization of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front. In the mid-2000s, the organization of the march was taken over by a group called Bloc Identitaire. Later, JNR took over again before it was dissolved by the authorities. Since then, newer organizations from the neo-Nazi milieu have taken charge.

In 2024 and 2025, the demonstration was banned by the authorities but allowed again by the administrative courts, while anti-fascist demonstrations remained banned. In 2023, the demonstration was not banned, and the Paris police prefecture responded to criticism from parties and NGOs by saying there was no “proven risk to public order” that would justify a ban. The media debate likely prompted the bans in the following years.

This year, the authorities again banned all demonstrations, including the Antifascist Village, which had been announced for May 8. The latter is an anti-fascist fair with stands from many left-wing and anti-racist organizations, planned for the historic Place du Panthéon on a symbolic date. May 8, 1945, was the day Nazi Germany capitulated and the Second World War ended in Europe; it is marked in France with a public holiday.

Together with the counter-demonstration planned for Saturday, May 9, anti-fascists had called for an “anti-fascist weekend” under the slogan “No Nazis in Paris”. The weekend included an Anticolonial Village on May 10.

The Antifascist Village was finally authorized by the administrative court one day before it took place. On May 8, however, the court upheld the authorities’ bans on the other demonstrations — on all sides. This meant that both main anti-fascist gathering points, one intersecting with the neo-Nazi route and another nearby, were banned. 

For the first time since 2008, the neo-Nazis were barred from marching. The court cited the tense situation during the 2025 demonstration, when violent incidents occurred, including Nazi salutes, hate speech and confrontations with left-wing activists who had surrounded the march. 

Public disorder was considered highly likely. The court also referred to the “highly polarized climate” surrounding this year’s demonstrations, indirectly alluding to the death of the neo-Nazi Quentin in Lyon during a confrontation with anti-fascists. It also noted that the requested routes of the neo-Nazi and anti-fascist demonstrations crossed paths. 

Jean-Eudes Gannat, a member of C9M, said during a spontaneous press conference that “it is paradoxical that nationalist activists, who lost one of their own, lynched to death this year, are banned from demonstrating because of the supposed risk of unrest”.

The organizers of the anti-fascist protests claimed the definitive ban on the C9M march as the result of unprecedented anti-fascist mobilization. Since hundreds of anti-fascists countered the 2025 march, the date had been placed high on the activist calendar by many groups. 

Activists from the March of Solidarities, a national mobilization platform against racism and fascism led by those most directly affected, noted in their declaration after the ban that “How could anyone think this ban happened by chance? It comes in the year when, all together, we set ourselves in motion with determination.” 

The mobilization, according to the organization, was powerful: “Hundreds of people joined us in Paris and the Île-de-France region and, together, we handed out leaflets, put up posters, discussed, debated, and challenged people: we made May 9 an unavoidable date. Thousands of demonstrators were ready to march against the Nazis.” From cities all over France, like Lyon, Rennes or Dijon, groups and organizations issued collective announcements to be in Paris to confront the neo-Nazi march.

On May 9, the authorities secured the banned meeting points with large numbers of riot police and water cannons. Small groups of neo-Nazis wandered around the city. At the same time, anti-fascist gathering points were immediately kettled by police. Some anti-fascists managed to march along the neo-Nazi route for a very short time. One group of nine neo-Nazis was arrested with knives and batons.

Unicorn Riot witnessed an attack by a group of at least three neo-Nazis near Pyramides metro station, close to the statue of Joan of Arc, where another far-right patriot figure, Florian Philippot, was holding a rally to announce his presidential candidacy. 

Anti-fascists had gathered behind police lines and were chanting anti-fascist slogans. Two streets away, a small group of neo-Nazis shouted nationalist slogans, including “Paris nationalist,” and hit a woman in the face. People quickly came to help the woman, as she told Unicorn Riot.

Before fleeing by the incoming motorbikes of the Brav-M police unit, one of the neo-Nazis dropped a Leatherman knife. They were then arrested. 

One of the arrested was recognized by the French media StreetPress as Jayson P., an ex-member of the party Rassemblement National (RN) who is known for his racist and violent tweets. He was also a part of last year’s march. StreetPress says he took part in RN youth activities, including campaigning for Jordan Bardella (he is even in a group photo with him), while also publishing comments targeting migrants and the left. StreetPress reports that local RN figures were allegedly informed about his behavior, but that no sanction followed. The article also describes WhatsApp messages within the local RN youth group that allegedly included references to the NSDAP (the original German Nazi party) and Nazi imagery.

During the day, UR also witnessed photographers and journalists being obstructed by the police, kettled together with groups of anti-fascists or fined for violating the ban order. According to the Parisian police, 97 people were detained and 46 of them placed in custody. 182 people were fined for violating the ban order.

Despite the official ban on this year’s Comité 9 Mai march in Paris, more than 500 far-right activists reportedly gathered on May 9, 2026, in a small venue in the Petits Ruisseaux business zone in Verrières-le-Buisson, south of Paris. 

According to StreetPress, the event included a clandestine neo-Nazi rock concert, tattoo and merchandise stands, and attendees from France as well as Germany, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands. Local residents described seeing groups of black-clad men, often with shaved heads, arriving in cars from across France and abroad. One resident said he saw participants exchange Nazi salutes as they left.

The organizers of C9M posted photos and video of a commemoration and invited their followers to join them again for Saturday, May 8, 2027. 

The local branch of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (France unbowed) wrote on X: “Neo-fascist activists gathered in Antony and the surrounding area despite prefectural bans targeting the C9M march in Paris. We refuse to let our town become a foothold for the far right and its violence. No place for the far right. ✊ ”. 

Several international fascists published about their presence in Paris on the weekend, including autonomous nationalists from Athens in Greece, with photos in front of the Eifel Tower, or the Young Nationalists, the youth organization of the German neo-Nazi party “Die Heimat” (The Homeland), who shared a picture of a far-right international seminar.

More UR coverage from Paris.

All images contributed by John Malamatinas and Alice Claire.

---

Follow us on X (aka Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads, BlueSky and Patreon.

Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our horizontally-organized, non-profit media organization: