Two people were arrested on Friday night, and degraded showcases at the passage of a procession gathering more than 600 people. Tristan Riom, municipal deputy, is accused of having supported the mobilization, which it defends itself.
Le Monde with AFP
The organization of an “Antifa” demonstration in Nantes, Friday, January 22, has provoked a conflict on the municipal council: several elected officials have publicly requested the resignation of an environmental adviser, Tristan Riom, that they accuse of having supported the mobilization, during which two showcases were degraded and two persons arrested by the police.
Initiated in particular to the call of Nantes Committee for the autonomy of struggles , the procession brought together more than 600 people in the city center, Friday night. Torches in hand, the protesters began their journey around 19 hours with fumigebies, fireworks and banners “against fascism, capitalism, authoritarianism”.
Around 20:30, the windows of a Zara store were broken – the ready-to-wear sign is regularly targeted and criticized by associations defending the rights of hears in the Chinese province of Xinjiang – as well as the Devanture of a neighboring monoprix, which caused the intervention of the police. Two people were arrested at the evening yard, one of whom was placed in custody.
“It appears that my analysis was wrong”
The event also directed towards a “bar reputable to accommodate extreme right activists”, according to The Nantes website revolted , which relays a lot of information about the anti-phase movement of the city. A server and a client of the bar were injured in an altercation with anti-phase activists but did not wish to file a complaint, according to police sources at the France-Presse agency.
Shortly before the start of the altercations between the protesters and the law enforcement, the publication of a tweet by the Municipal Councilor Tristan Riom triggered a series of criticisms from his political opponents: “Walk to the torches against the extreme right. of the world, music … What to call the Nantes nightlife on the progress of nauseating ideas in our country! “, said the message, accompanied by a photo of the procession, now deleted.
Saturday morning, the Senator of Loire-Atlantique Laurence Garnier (the Republicans) called in a statement to the resignation of the municipal councilor and fifth deputy Mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland (Socialist Party). “Sacking showcases, putting fire to our stores, is clearly noting for Tristan Riom of the local folklore,” she wrote especially in The message published on Twitter . A call relayed by the member for Nantes Valérie Oppelt (the Republic in March), Saturday morning . The Deputy Security of the City, Pascal Bolo, a member of the majority to which the ecologists were allied, has also denounced the Tristan Riom speech pick.
“Given the turn that the manifestation took, it appears that my analysis was wrong, and so that my message was Malvenu,” reacted Tristan Riom on Twitter, In the aftermath of the manifestation , ensuring that his first tweet had been posted before the first degradations found in the city .
Johanna Rolland has, on his side, convicted “with force” on Twitter “the degradations of which our downtown has been the object” and brought its “support to the traders concerned”. The President of the Pays de la Loire Region, Christelle Morançais (Republicans), condemned “extremely serious” facts. “Support and tribute to our policemen who do a remarkable job in the face of these ultraviolent groups,” she wrote on Twitter.