Nice-Premium: The court accuses the Identitarian Youth of being derived
from the far-right group Unité Radicale. This political organization had been dissolved when one of its members, Maxime Brunerie, attempted to assassinate Jacques Chirac on July 14, 2002. Do you continue to deny this accusation?
PV: Of course! None of the members of the first board of the Identitarian Youth (when the association was filed in 2002) had held responsibilities within Unité Radicale. None of the current leaders of the Identitarian Youth have ever been linked in any way to Unité Radicale. The Identitarian Youth do not share the political line that was theirs. It is grotesque to want to affiliate the Identitarian Youth with a nationalist group that almost everyone ignored the existence of until Maxime Brunerie’s crazy act. I would still like to point out, as an example, that Alain Krivine was the leader of two dissolved movements in the 60s-70s (the Revolutionary Communist Youth and the Communist League) before creating the Revolutionary Communist League. Messrs. Krivine and Besancenot have not been prosecuted for reconstituting a dissolved league…
NP: Are you going to appeal the judgment passed on Monday?
PV: Judges are not going to convince us of what we know to be false. Of course, we filed an appeal this morning (editor’s note: Tuesday, December 18, 2007) against all the decisions made.
NP: The court demands a fine of 20,000 euros. Following the trial, you launched an appeal for donations. So the Identitarian Youth cannot pay their fine?
Philippe Vardon: We are launching an appeal for donations to help us cover our significant legal costs (lawyers, travel), not to pay our fines, which is prohibited. Do we have a contingency plan if the donations are not sufficient? Once I have sold the few trinkets I have, I might consider bank robbery, drug trafficking, or organized prostitution. I would certainly have less risk of being prosecuted or convicted by the republican justice than by simply exercising my political freedoms as is the case today!
NP: Does your court appearance change your ambitions for the municipal elections as a candidate of the Nissa Rebela movement?
PV: These prosecutions target the Identitarian Youth. My candidacy for the municipal elections and the existence of the Nissa Rebela movement are therefore not threatened by these convictions. On the contrary, these incessant prosecutions and this actual lynching only strengthen our determination. And it brings us new support every day. On January 10, I will present the “N.I.S.S.A.!” list (Nice Identity Security Solidarity Action) that I will lead in the municipal elections. During this meeting, we will discuss the three key measures of our project: a local consultative referendum on the mosque issue, the creation of positions for teachers of the Nissart language and culture in primary schools, and the reorganization and reassignment of the Municipal Police through the creation of neighborhood police stations.
