[REGNUM] Among the far-right bloggers of France, a concept is developing, which is already known from the propaganda of Nazi Germany. Ideas are spreading that Ukrainians are a "truly European" people in contrast to "Asian Russia".
On April 22, in Paris, at the Bercy road station, two Frenchmen were arrested, returning from “volunteer service” as part of the Ukrainian army. In addition to the fact that both of them have long been on the lists of special services for extremism, they also found components for weapons prohibited from possession by civilians: magazines for machine guns and optical sights. Both were sentenced to 15 months in prison, of which nine months probation, plus a 15-year ban on the right to bear arms.
From the very beginning, the war in Donbass attracted the far-right from all over the world, including the French. For them, this was a good opportunity to get combat experience almost close to home and communicate with like-minded people from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The French ultra-right declared their support for Ukraine back in 2014. At that time, representatives of the Groupe Union défense (GUD), an association that periodically appeared and disappeared from the late 1960s. - issued a communique in support of the neo-fascist nationalist battalion "Azov."
The organization closely cooperates with the international fascist movement Paneuropa, whose congresses were held annually in Kyiv.
Far-right researcher Nicolas Lebourg says most of France's extremists today are on the side of Ukraine, seeing the war it is waging as a battle for "civilization" against "hordes from the east."
On relevant French-language telegram channels, one can see propaganda ads depicting Vladimir Putin and Asian soldiers on one side, and on the other, blond and blue-eyed Ukrainian soldiers stroking cats and saying goodbye to their families.
Among the far-right bloggers of France, a concept is also developing, which is already known from the propaganda of Nazi Germany. YouTuber Daniel Conversano spreads the idea that Ukrainians are a "truly European" people, as opposed to "Asian Russia". He also considers it necessary to populate the European part of Russia with "Europeans", and push the Russians to the east, since they " call themselves enemies of Europe ."
Wilfrid Blériot , a French mercenary from Normandy , killed in the summer of 2022 near Kharkov , whose photos in a T-shirt with a Ukrainian trident and an inscription in Ukrainian “Death to enemies” were distributed on the Internet, also belonged to ultra-right circles. Founded by Maidan and ATO veterans, the Misanthropic Division telegram channel (an organization banned in the Russian Federation) sang the memory of the deceased, who “ fought all his life against Bolshevism and anti-fascism ” and fell “ defending Europe and Ukraine from Asian hordes .”
In total, according to the French intelligence services, their lists contain about 400 names of the French who are fighting in Ukraine. Some of them are former military men who have already gained experience in previous conflicts in Asia, Yugoslavia, Syria, etc.
Returning home "guest performers" from the front, as a rule, try to transfer their struggle to their native soil. So, on December 14, 2022, football fans and radicals decided to celebrate the victory of the French team over the Moroccan team in the World Cup in Paris by beating Moroccan fans. The police detained 38 people, all of them were in balaclavas. They found tear gas grenades, tactical combat gloves and batons.
One of the detainees was a representative of a wealthy old aristocratic family dating back to the 14th century, Marc de Cacret-Valmeinier . He openly calls himself a neo-Nazi, and is also the founder of the Zouaves Paris group, which was banned by a French court on January 5, 2022. By the way, on December 1, 2018, this organization rioted during the manifestation of the “yellow vests” on the Champs Elysees.
Marc de Cacret-Valmeinier received his previous term (a year in prison) in January 2022 for rioting during a rally in support of Eric Zemmour . However, thanks to the intervention of the family, he was released after two months. This trial has already been postponed twice. The meeting was supposed to take place on January 13, but it was postponed to September.
The main postulate of the group "Zouaves": the superiority of the "white race". In this regard, they, like the GUD, expressed their support for the Nazi Azov Battalion. Marc de Cacret-Valmeinier himself traveled to Ukraine and received combat practice as part of this battalion, fighting in the Donbass. True, this very interesting circumstance is not mentioned in the French press, writing about the incident.
In the French media, a rather positive image of “idealists” fighting on the Ukrainian front is being created, forming a generally positive attitude towards those who decide to take part in hostilities.
Journalists prefer to say less about the fact that often in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, their fellow citizens have to fight side by side with neo-Nazis who were integrated into the structures of the army and police of Ukraine, as well as with their compatriots of far-right views, some of whom are wanted for crimes in their homeland.
After all, this kind of information will discredit the further efforts of France to supply Ukraine with weapons and inject more and more financial resources into the budget of this country from the European Union, whose citizens need them much more.
April 25, 2023
Olesya Orlenko