During the Comité du 9 Mai demonstration, Paris, May 10, 2025. GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP
The traditional May 9 march, which usually brings together various branches of the French far right as well as foreign activists, will not be taking place on Saturday, May 9 – a first since 2008 (excluding pandemic-era restrictions). On Friday, the Paris Police Prefecture confirmed the decision made by the administrative courts to cancel the demonstrations. The same court has also upheld the ban on the antifascist demonstration planned for the same day, and whose route was set to intersect with that of the far right.
In addition, on Thursday evening the administrative court lifted the ban issued by the Paris Police Prefect on the setting up of an "Antifascist Village" on Place du Panthéon. This event is part of a whole"antifascist" weekend on May 9 and 10 under the slogan "No Nazis in Paris," and is being organized by several collectives, unions and political parties.
The far-right groups' demonstration is held every year on May 9 in memory of the far-right ultranationalist activist Sébastien Deyzieu, who died in an accident in 1994 after falling from a rooftop while fleeing the police. While in 2025 and 2024 the administrative court overturned the bans imposed by the Paris Police Prefecture, this year it ended up siding with it, notably due to the "very tense political climate" since the death of neo-Nazi activist Quentin Deranque on February 14 following clashes in downtown Lyon with the antifascist movement, which included several members of the dissolved collective La Jeune Garde.
