France to ban far-right Catholic group for 'legitimising violence'
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has announced that he intends to disband Academia Christiana, a movement of far-right traditionalist Catholics that he accuses of justifying and inciting violence.
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Darmanin, whose ministry has already banned several other groups deemed dangerous, said in an interview with online magazine Brut on Sunday that he would seek the dissolution of Academia Christiana "in the coming weeks".
The group "repeatedly legitimises physical violence and the use of arms", an interior ministry source told Le Parisien newspaper.
"It uses the vocabulary of war and explicitly encourages its supporters to arm themselves and go on a crusade."
Founded in 2013, Academia Christiana presents itself as a training institute in the fields of spirituality, morality, education and sport.
It is led by Victor Aubert, a professor of French and philosophy at the Institute Croix des Vents in Sées, a private school directed by the traditionalist Catholic society Fraternité Sacerdotale Saint-Pierre (Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter).
"They are apologists for anti-Semitism. They are big supporters of collaboration and Pétain. This does not, in our opinion, correspond to the values of the French Republic," Darmanin told TV interviewers on Monday.
Plan to appeal
In response to the government's move to dissolve it, Academia Christiana accused the authorities of treating Catholics as second-class citizens, claiming an attempt to "prohibit any thought or reflection outside of secular and consumerist ideology".
The organisation says it will challenge its planned dissolution before the Council of State, France's top administrative court, which has been called to examine several of the interior ministry's other orders to disband.
In his interview with Brut, the interior minister revealed that "at least three other far-right groups" were under scrutiny by intelligence services, though no specific details were provided.
Darminin has promised to crack down on violent right-wing groups after protests organised by the ultra-right last month led to several arrests.
His previous dissolution orders have targeted radical Islamist movements, as well as anti-Islamophobia and anti-fascism groups and a climate protest network.
(with newswires)
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