PARIS (Reuters) – France’s interior minister said on Tuesday he had asked local prefects to ban all ultra-right demonstrations after authorities were criticized for allowing a march of far-right activists in Paris over the weekend.
“We will let the courts decide if case-law allows these demonstrations,” Gerald Darmanin told the National Assembly.
The rally on Saturday by far-right extremists dressed in black drew criticism at a time when authorities have clamped down on people banging pots and pans and heckling government members in protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform that raises the retirement age by two years to 64.
The march on Saturday in Paris saw several hundred men from far-right groups march with flags and chant slogans to commemorate the death of a far-right activist, Sebastien Deyzieu, in 1994.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Editing by William Maclean)