ICE Comes to Europe, Secret RN Facebook Accounts and Not-So-Nice Guys

This week in French news, from immigration to the far right.

Hooligans from Nice attack a Paris bar.

Imagine. Wide-reaching policing powers that allow for immigration agents to track undocumented migrants in their homes, schools, workplaces. Sprawling offshore detention centers where sub-Saharan Africans, Latin Americans, Eastern Europeans and South Asian immigrants and their children can be detained for up to 24 months. All of it sanctioned by a coalition of right-wing and far-right politicians working hand in hand and at breakneck pace.

If this sounds like a dystopian future only a country as twisted as the United States could devise, think again. All of these systems described above are EU-made, manufactured in closed door meetings in Brussels and Strasbourg and soon to be tucked away into a neat law known as the European Return Regulation.

After being voted through the European Parliament in March, the Return Regulation continues its frenetic path toward becoming a law. This week, European representatives in Brussels held talks as part of their “trilogue discussions” between the European Parliament, Commission and EU governments.

According to sources I’ve spoken to for an upcoming investigation, French MEP Francois-Xavier Bellamy was among the politicians pushing for a quicker implementation of some of the regulation’s most drastic measures. The question of timing has temporarily stalled the talks, which are expected to pick back up next week.

Don’t hold your breath. Though the details are still subject to change, the Return Regulation — which will pave the way for massive repression a la ICE — should be voted into law by mid-June. More on this soon.

Unmasking “Seven FK”

'‘Why live in a country that you don’t like and that will never accept you?”

“Neo-feminism, a fanatic delirium.”

“$8 million for LGBT people in Lesotho, a country no one has ever heard of.”

These are some of the spammy, racist and homophobic posts from the anonymous Facebook page “Seven FK.” While the page might read as an innocuous troll account, it belongs to a newly-elected regional Vice President in France’s Franche-Comté region, a member of the far-right National Rally, according to an investigation from the local media Le Ch’ni.

The page first became active around March’s municipal elections, flooding the comment sections of numerous pages — particularly local media — with partisan content, part of a smear campaign against left-wing and centrist political figures. The account also posted on its own wall, targeting immigrants, the LGBT+ community, feminists, and so-called "wokes" — one of the French far-right’s favorite bugbears. Le Ch’ni’s investigation reveals that behind the pseudonym is Franck Bernard, a RN figure who was just elected vice-president of the Greater Besançon metropolitan authority.

Bernard, it turns out, is also a big Trumper, journalists found after reviewing a small subsection of more than 20,000 Facebook posts.

On the day of Trump's re-election in November 2024, the account posted a pro-Trump flag. He also shared content promoting the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, anti-Roma content, and an anti-LGBT+ image widely circulated in conservative and ultranationalist circles showing a “traditional family” sheltering under an umbrella from rainbow-colored rain.

So much for the party’s years-long project of weeding out “bad apples” — or as the French say, ‘brebis galeuses’ (“gale-ridden sheep”).

Nice hooligans attack Paris bar

The videos started to circulate on social media on Friday night. A group of black-clad men, many of them with shaved heads, approach a bar on the Canal Saint-Martin in central Paris under the orange light of the street lamps. The attackers begin to pick up chairs and tables and throw them at the glass windows and doors of L’Atmosphere, an establishment known for its left-wing clientele. Inside, patrons try to prevent them from entering.

While the hooligans were initially described as fans from Nice on the eve of a key French football match confronting Parisian rivals, another narrative quickly emerged.

Streetpress, a French media outlet that covers the far-right, reported that the attackers were fueled by racial hatred. One witness, named Jaden, described seeing "about a hundred shaved-headed men performing Nazi salutes," while another witness, Anouk, a restaurant worker across the canal, described an "army of hooded men dressed in black" marching in silence. Both witnesses described seeing Nazi symbols and hearing members of the group shout racist slurs, including statements about wanting to attack Black and Arab people. When a Black man tried to intervene to calm the situation, he was stabbed in the back.

The main ultra group involved, the Brigade Sud Nice (BSN), is known for violence. In 2010, the group was dissolved by the government but quickly re-formed under the name "Populaire Sud Nice." Nice’s far-right mayor Eric Ciotti quickly made a statement that the actions were those of a “violent minority.”

Bad people on both sides, certainly.

A couple of things before you go

Next week, I’ll be launching my new-and-improved Substack with a fresh name, logo and some premium content. In case you missed the original announcement, you can find it below.

I hope you’ll stick with me and consider a small investment in the project in the form of a pledge.

One final thing. The Paris-based magazine I help edit, SOUVENIR Magazine, is launching its second issue in just under a week. Be sure to subscribe and if you’re in Paris, attend the launch party next Saturday!