The royalist movement, Action Française, was permitted to hold both a conference and a march previously banned by Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, due to an administrative appeal. The events, planned for May 13-14 in Paris, were jeopardised after Darmanin, on May 9th, ordered the police prefectures to intervene “in any future far-Right or ultra-Right gathering.”
As a result, Action Française, which traditionally organises a parade in honour of the feast of Saint Joan of Arc, France’s secondary patron saint, was notified on the evening of May 12th that both the colloquium on the theme “France in Danger,” scheduled for Saturday, May 13th, and the Saint Joan of Arc parade, scheduled for Sunday, May 14th, were banned.
Action Française immediately filed a référé-liberté appeal—an express judiciary action made to reverse a decision on matters of public freedom—to challenge the ban, which it considered unwarranted, and won the case before the Paris administrative court.
Both the conference and the march were therefore able to take place as planned.
On Sunday, May 14th, somewhere between 500 and 2,000 people marched down the short path from the Opéra Garnier to the equestrian statue of Joan on the rue de Rivoli behind their fleurdelisé banners.
Gérald Darmanin, who had to bow to the court decision, nevertheless denounced the traditional slogans of the royalists, such as “Action? Française! Long Live the King” or “Joan of Arc in Paris, down with the Republic,” which Darmanin described on Twitter as “the nauseating face of the far Right.”
Several demonstrators ironically reminded Gérald Darmanin that a few years ago, the man—who was not yet a minister—was a writer in the columns of the magazine Politique magazine, of Maurassian inspiration and close to Action Française. The protestors devised a slogan improvised for the occasion: “Darmanin, come back! AF [Action Française] needs you!”
The minister of the interior did not wish to respond directly to this question, but reiterated his opposition to the statements of Action Française and its attacks on the Republic—to be expected, since it is a royalist movement, which is essentially opposed to the Republic.
Olivier Perceval, secretary general of Action Française, welcomed the court decision that finally allowed the conference and the march to take place:
We defended the right to demonstrate based on French law and jurisprudence. There was never any incident. This is not a protest demonstration, we honour Joan of Arc. The extreme left says that we are a threat to public order, we have never broken anything. We are a party that defends order.
Another nationalist demonstration planned for the same day was banned without possible appeal.
