The organization of an “antifa” demonstration in Nantes on Friday, January 22, provoked a conflict within the city council on Saturday: several elected officials publicly demanded the resignation of an environmental adviser, Tristan Riom, whom they accuse of having supported the mobilization, during which two windows were damaged and two people arrested by the police.
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Initiated in particular by the call of the Nantes Committee for the Autonomy of Struggles, the procession gathered more than 600 people in the city center on Friday evening. Torches in hand, the demonstrators began their journey around 7 p.m. with smoke bombs, fireworks and banners “against fascism, capitalism, authoritarianism”.
Around 8:30 p.m., the windows of a Zara store were smashed – the ready-to-wear brand is regularly targeted and criticized by associations defending the rights of the Uighurs in the Chinese province of Xinjiang – as well as the storefront of a neighboring Monoprix, which prompted the intervention of the police. Two people were arrested during the evening, one of whom was taken into custody.
“It appears that my analysis was erroneous”
The demonstration was also directed towards a “bar renowned for hosting far-right activists”, according to Nantes Revoltée website, which relays a lot of information about the city’s anti-fascist movement. A waiter and a client of the bar were injured in an altercation with anti-fascist activists but did not wish to file a complaint, according to police sources at Agence France-Presse.
Shortly before the altercations between protesters and law enforcement began, the posting of a tweet by environmentalist city councilor Tristan Riom sparked a series of criticisms from his political opponents: “Torchlight march against the extreme right. World, music… Something to challenge the nightlife of Nantes on the progress of nauseating ideas in our country! », said the message, accompanied by a photo of the motorcade, now deleted.
Saturday morning, Loire-Atlantique Senator Laurence Garnier (Les Républicains) called in a press release for the resignation of the municipal councilor and fifth deputy mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland (Socialist Party). “To ransack windows, set fire to our stores, obviously for Tristan Riom is local folklore”, she writes in particular in the message posted on Twitter. A call relayed by the deputy of Nantes Valérie Oppelt (La République en Marche), Saturday morning. The city’s security deputy, Pascal Bolo, a member of the majority with which the elected environmentalists are allied, also denounced the speech by Tristan Riom.
“Given the turn that the demonstration took, it appears that my analysis was erroneous, and therefore that my message was unwelcome”, reacted Tristan Riom on Twitter, the day after the demonstration, ensuring that his first tweet had been posted before the first degradations noted in the city.
Johanna Rolland, for her part, condemned ” with force “ on Twitter “the damage to which our city center has been subjected” and brought his “support for concerned traders”. The president of the Pays de la Loire region, Christelle Morançais (Les Républicains), condemned the facts “extremely serious”. “Support and tribute to our police officers who are doing a remarkable job in the face of these ultra-violent groups”, she wrote on Twitter.