"Generation Identity" redirects here. For similarly-named Identitarian groups, see Identitarian movement.
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (August 2019) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
View a machine-translated version of the French article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Les Identitaires]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Les Identitaires}} to the talk page.
The movement is widely considered neo-fascist, although Les Identitaires does not consider itself as such.[3][4] Génération Identitaire was banned in March 2021.[12] On 14 February 2023, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) released a report in which it classified Les Identitaires as a "white nationalist" and "Anti-Muslim" group.[13][14]
The Bloc Identitaire runs the agency and website Novopress, that has associates in most of Western Europe and North America.[16]
Novopress
Novopress presents itself as an "international news agency"[17] founded by Fabrice Robert, a leader of the French nationalist organization Bloc Identitaire.[18] Among its managers is Guillaume Luyt, former leader of the Front national de la jeunesse.[19]Patrick Gofman is one of the editors of Novopress.info (French section).[20]
The youth wing of Bloc Identitaire, called in France Génération identitaire,[1] or Generation Identity, expanded to other European states soon after its creation in 2012, including Generazione Identitaria in Italy and Identitäre Bewegung in Germany and Austria.[21][22] Other youth wings are also present in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Hungary, and the United Kingdom and Ireland. France banned Generation Identity in March 2021.[23]
Controversies
The Bloc Identitaire has been accused of intentionally distributing several popular soups containing pork in order to exclude religious Jews or Muslims; in Strasbourg, Nice, Paris, and in Antwerp with the association Antwerpse Solidariteit close to the Vlaams Belang. These so-called "identity soups" ("soupes identitaires") have been forbidden by the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin in Strasbourg on 21 January 2006, and called "discriminatory and xenophobic" by MEP Catherine Trautmann (PS) in a 19 January 2006 letter to the High authority for the struggle against discrimination and for equality (HALDE).[citation needed]
This ethno-regionalist movement has also organised a campaign against the rap group Sniper in 2003, which was taken up by the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), leading to the cancellation of several concerts of the band. UMP deputy Nadine Morano interpolated Interior Minister (UMP) Nicolas Sarkozy on this theme, while 200 UMP deputies, led by François Grosdidier, tried without success to censor several hip-hop bands. Sarkozy criticized the hip-hop group as "ruffians who dishonour France."[citation needed]
In 2004, the Bloc Identitaire also organized a campaign against Italian writer Cesare Battisti, one-time member of the terrorist group Armed Proletarians for Communism, who was wanted in Italy for an assassination carried out during the Years of Lead, in which he denies responsibility. Battisti accused the "cell of the Italian embassy" of having "financed" the Bloc identitaire's campaign against him (in Ma Cavale, p. 160). Battisti was convicted to life sentence in his homeland for a total of 36 charges, including participation in four murders. The French government would subsequently decide to extradite him to Italy, but Battisti escaped to Brazil where he was granted political asylum.
In December 2018, Al Jazeera produced a documentary entitled "Generation Hate" featuring an undercover journalist who had infiltrated Génération Identitaire. The documentary included undercover footage of Génération Identitaire members in the northern French city of Lille racially abusing and assaulting migrant youths, advocating violence against Muslims, and alleged linkages between Génération Identitaire and Front National.[27] Génération Identitaire's actions were condemned by Mayor of Lille Martine Aubry and Prefect of the North Michele Lalande, who advocated prosecuting offenders for inciting hatred and closing down La Citadelle, which served as a meeting place for location Génération Identitaire members in Lille. Prosecutor Thierry Pocquet Haut-Jussé has also announced an investigation by the Central Directorate of Public Security into the activities of the Génération Identitaire members.[28]
On 11 July 2019, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency, formally designated the Identitarian Movement as "a verified extreme right movement against the liberal democratic constitution." The new classification will allow the BfV to use more powerful surveillance methods against the group and its youth wing, Generation Identity. The Identitarian Movement has about 600 members in Germany.[29]
Lawsuit
In August 2019, a French court sentenced three members of Generation Identity to a six-month jail term, fines of €2,000 each and loss of civic rights for five years, and fined the pan-European organisation €75,000, over an anti-immigrant operation in the Alps. Generation Identity president Clément Gandelin, spokesman Romain Espino and Damien Lefèvre were found guilty of "exercising activities in conditions that could create confusion with a public function". The case was that the operation, involving about 100 of their members at the Col de l'Échelle in April 2018, could have been mistaken for a police action.[15][30]
Ban
On 3 March 2021, France banned Génération Identitaire (Generation Identity), as the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the movement incited "discrimination, hatred and violence".[12] A few weeks before, dozens of people protested in Paris against the dissolution. About 200 protesters were estimated to be present.[31][32]
Jordan Bardella, at the time the spokesperson for the National Rally, posted statements of support for Génération Identitaire. As a result, Facebook removed the posts and suspended certain features of his account.[33]