"The Hussars": revelations about the neo-fascist group, heir to the Zouaves, which is striking in Paris

The message arrived on February 11. Its threatening title is beyond discussion: "General Mobilization." And the following lines are in keeping with it: "On February 16, the Young Guard is organizing an event in Strasbourg-Saint-Denis. You must be available from 3 p.m. until early evening," orders, under the pseudonym "Vicompte," a leader of the Paris Hussars, the neo-Nazi group that took up the torch from the Zouaves and the GUD after their dissolution.

"The goal is to smoke the typical team or isolated guys after their shitty conference. I'm counting on your presence. I await your apologies by private message if you are absent. Same principle as usual: thumbs up, present; thumbs down, absent."

On this private group called "16/02" and bringing together at least 21 thugs, thumbs up went up en masse, and the administrator gave the final instructions on the eve of the meeting: "No weapons or idiot stuff, umbrellas if you like."

When one of the participants expressed surprise at not having found any trace of a " Young Guard event " – this anti-fascist organisation now subject to dissolution proceedings initiated by the Minister of the Interior – the same person gave him the details by voice message.

And the other one replies: "Oh yeah, OK, they'll definitely be there. The last time I saw a Kurdish demonstration, there was the Young Guard." As a sign that he's understood the target, the guy adds jokingly: "I'm going to bring a Turkish flag."

The result of this premeditated operation was evident to everyone in two videos recorded on February 16 at around 5 p.m. by neighbors of the Cultural Association of Immigrant Workers from Turkey (ACTIT) on Rue d'Hauteville in the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis district of Paris. In the middle of a screening of Costa-Gavras's Z , organized on site by the Young Struggle movement, reality surpassed fiction.

In the first sequence, Paul, a young anti-fascist who fell to the ground in the courtyard of the building after being hit with a helmet, was kicked and punched by about fifteen men, their faces hidden; the young man was also injured with shards of glass. In the second video, between 25 and 30 individuals fled hastily into the street, and two of them shouted a very explicit signature: "Paris is Nazi", "Lyon is Nazi too".

At that moment, six of the neo-fascist henchmen were arrested in the metro. They were rather young—between 18 and 24 years old—and considered "prospects," sympathizers who had yet to prove themselves. " It's a bit like the Hussars' antechamber," admits Alexandre H. "The Hussars are there to test the prospects in terms of involvement, concentration, and lack of fear, if they are present."

Panic sets in within the group: "Tchoupi is in custody, we need to delete all conversations with him," one of the members calls out. The leader gives the instruction: "If you have any doubts about one of the guys in custody, send me a private message."

Given the violence of the attack, they were questioned for "attempted murder" . After being taken into custody, despite their denials ("I'm not a tough guy, I was just a spectator") or vague explanations ("It was just a media stunt for promotion on social media"), all were charged with "aggravated violence with a weapon, in a group and with premeditation" and for "participation in a group formed for the preparation of violence". Five were released, and the last was placed in pre-trial detention. Today, investigations are continuing, notably via a rogatory commission.

The day after the annual parade organized in the capital by the neo-Nazis of the May 9 Committee (C9M) , the information revealed today by L'Humanité allows them to tear off the hoods... And to delve into the heart of a central organization in the radical far right. At the home of one of those arrested, investigators found a neck warmer with the acronym C9M as well as a sticker from the 2024 edition, with an ancient statue brandishing a sword.

On another's phone, a group photo behind a flag bearing a Celtic cross, also taken last year. The connection is explicitly established by "Vicomte" in his call for an attack on the anti-fascists on February 16: the leader insists on everyone's presence, because "five" activists will already be " traveling to Germany that weekend to prepare the ground for the C9M ."

Weapons, Waffen-SS trinkets, anti-Semitism, and racism... Behind the candor displayed before the police and the courts, a whole arsenal of dangerous equipment and nauseating ideas came to light. During the searches, particularly at the homes of Lucas W. and Alexis L., a telescopic baton, daggers and knives, knuckle dusters, gas canisters, and three briefcases believed to contain blank-firing pistols were found—two of which were empty. Some of the people involved exchanged images of shooting sessions via text messages.

The day before the attack on Young Struggle, on February 15, Louis T. took a photograph of a coffee table with a revolver lying among the bottles. Most of the arrested activists also frequented more or less official combat sports clubs.

A sign of strong integration into the radical far-right movement: in an exchange with one of them, there is talk of giving one's name to the "GUD manager" in order to be able to participate in an "active club", these nationalist fight clubs where, as one of the young Nazis will say, one is "among friends" for "small friendly fights".

Among the objects seized by the investigators were spectacular "collections" of Hitler flags: a "black sun" - a pagan symbol very popular among the SS -, a flag of the Charlemagne division - "of the French who fought alongside the Nazis against Bolshevism," one of the prospects explained -, pro-slavery banners from the United States, etc. Then there were posters, stickers and on phones, subscriptions to channels of the entire movement as well as exchanges of memes - these images with a satirical purpose - each more racist and smelly than the last.

It's not all folklore, of course. Alexis L. films himself giving a Nazi salute; in another photo, he wears a T-shirt displaying a slightly cryptic, but clearly anti-Semitic, wink. Asked about the GUD neck warmer found in his belongings, Martin B., the oldest of those arrested, says he uses it for "mountain biking," after buying it at a concert because "they're a bit like the bad boys of the right." "I have no contact with those people," he swears. "I know they tolerate the Holocaust; they're notorious anti-Semites. Killing children isn't part of my ideology."

In his electronic devices, investigators found a photo of a Nazi humiliating a Jewish woman and a map of the "black population" in Europe. Another posing with a weapon and an ISIS flag explained that he was making "the jihadist sign, but it's a joke." Asked again that he said he liked listening to nasheeds—traditional Muslim chants sometimes transformed into calls to jihad—he added, like an aesthete: "I don't know what it's about, but it's a very beautiful language."

But behind these answers to investigators, the backgrounds are clearly evident. Beyond the individuals arrested, one of the members of the "16/2" group appears under an identity reminiscent of a neo-Nazi from Lyon Populaire. In the past, and even though their criminal records are clean, all the members of the Hussards identified so far are known to the police and the courts. Alexandre H. was sentenced to a "citizenship course" for participating in an ultra-violent raid on a high school in the ^3rd arrondissement of Paris in 2023.

Lucas F. and Martin B. were arrested along with 37 other activists on the sidelines of a tribute at the grave of collaborationist writer Robert Brasillach. They were joined by the two bigwigs of the successive Zouaves, GUD, and Hussards groups: Marc de Caqueray-Valménier—a multiple convicted violent offender, still at the head of the C9M and now, as the Lettre revealed, a security guard on Vincent Bolloré's private island off the coast of Brittany—and Gabriel Loustau—son of one of the leaders of the GUD Connexion—convicted of a homophobic attack perpetrated on the evening of the RN's victory in the 2024 European elections.

Among the elements that L'Humanité was able to consult, what still appears is the great porosity with, at the same time, other movements of the radical extreme right, like Action Française (AF) or Œuvre Française, but also with the more institutional currents.

Among the Hussars-to-be, Louis T. arrived via the royalists: in his few books, investigators found the works of Maurras alongside Mein Kampf. Lucas G. shared some smutty nationalist jokes with a very good friend who was in the AF and whom he met, like everyone else, in the bars of Saint-Germain in Paris.

Claiming to be teaching catechism with a priest—who turns out to be a fundamentalist—Alexis L. says he hopes for support in his misfortune from an association that shares his ideas, the Clan, led notably by the Pétainist Yvan Benedetti. As a sign that he's casting his net wide, on the same person's phone, the police discovered a text message from Reconquête asking him to rejoin immediately. But, in this panorama, the one who wins all the votes is Jean-Marie Le Pen : everyone, or almost everyone, turned out for the tribute paid in his honor earlier this year.

But even these great figures never make the Hussars and their potential supporters forget the essentials. A few days after the funeral of the founder of the National Front, and a month before their attack on February 16, they relaunched their activities. With the same organizational model: a private group on encrypted messaging for preparations and a promise of a manhunt in Strasbourg-Saint-Denis.

On February ^1st , the Hussars were disheartened; they had little to eat. "There are only groups of blacks," lamented one of the guys. Another said he had seen a suspicious group in a bar, before another came to deny it: "Nothing to report, just a black guy." The leader ordered: "Get him!"

The screening of Z isn't over; it continues in the open air. Between the justice system and the far right, the film's ending remains to be written. But the danger is there: stylized and aestheticized during the C9M parade, ugly and cowardly in the streets.