“The Factional Far-Right Thanks You” – French TV channel C8 Platforms the Far-Right Hate Group ‘Génération Identitaire’
Does French media treat all hate equally? C8’s decision to give their nation-wide platform to a far-right hate group, allowing its spokesperson to justify their new vigilante initiative at the France-Spain border, sets a dangerous precedent.
On 19th January 2021, the far-right White Pride group Génération Identitaire [Generation Identity] launched a new anti-migrant operation named ‘Mission Pyrenees’, as part of their Defend Europe programme. This action saw the organisation’s agitators patrolling the Spain-France border to forcible stop persons of "Afro-Maghreban" descent and other "suspect profiles” from crossing into France.
One national TV channel in the country, C8 invited Génération Identitaire spokesperson Thaïs D'Escufon to talk about this initiative on their evening show Balance ton post [Balance Your Post/Outlook]. Part of the Canal+ group that also controls the far-right news channel CNews, C8’s uncritical interview ended up amplifying the toxic agenda of this white supremacist group on a nation-wide platform.
Licra (The International Leage Against Racism and Anti-Semitism), Get the Trolls Out! partner in France, was among the organisations that denounced D’Escufon’s invitation, arguing that presenting anti-Muslim and racist conspiracy theories has harmful effects in a recent Tweet:
“The factional far-right thanks you for the publicity and audience you offer them. Obviously, the intrusion in the Capitol by Trump's rioters did not give you any lesson.”
Calling for the group’s immediate dissolution, Licra explain that ‘Mission Pyrenees’ is an inherently anti-Muslim operation that misrepresents all “migrants” as “Islamists” by intentionally conflating the two terms.
This was not the first time that Génération Identitaire came under fire.
Established in France in 2012, after the dissolution of its predecessor ‘Bloc Identitaire’, this organisation stands out among far-right parties, which tend to promote one country’s nationalism, by claiming to protect European civilisation as a whole. Unfortunately, “this far-right youth wing political movement[…] seeks to promote a very specific European identity,” defined through Christianity and whiteness, against the threat posed by what they see as migration-led ‘Islamisation of Europe’ – the key premise of the debunked Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
Unsurprisingly, then, the bulk of the group’s activity takes the form of vile anti-Muslim rhetoric and publicity stunts.
For example, in 2017, Génération Identitaire made repeated attempts to block migrant-rescue ships belonging to SOS Migration, a prominent migrants’ rights NGO, from saving refugees at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean by using “a flotilla of boats” as an obstruction. In response, Licra called on France’s Interior Minister to dissolve the group under Article 212-1 of the country’s Internal Security Code.
Licra repeated this call in 2019, after Génération Identitaire “hang a banner from the roof of the CAF (Family Allowances Fund) building in Bobigny with the inscription: ‘Money for the French. Not for the Foreigners.’”
While no action was taken at the time, the current Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that he is “outraged by the efforts by Génération Identitaire activists to undermine the Republic” and will “not hesitate to advise closing it down,” provided these is sufficient evidence the group’s anti-migrant and anti-Muslim operations are illegal.
But, why is the Minister hesitating?
After all, accounts affiliated to the group have already been removed by almost all the main social media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, among them.