“When I was in prison, the GUD paid me everything”, says Arthur (the first name has been changed). Now in his thirties, this former militant of the Union Defense Group, a far-right student union, has vivid memories of his months spent in prison. “I had enormous support from the members of the GUD, he continues. They all contributed to cover the cost of my life in prison. Every month, I had my mandate of 200 euros.”
Created in 1968 to attack the “leftist” influence at the university, the GUD is not just a gang gathered for clashes against antifa. Like what Arthur observed, it is also a network, almost a family, which takes care of its members long after their activity within the organization has ceased. “For Christmas, I had a huge package. I received everything: money, clothes, books… And a lot of letters of support,” he continues. At present, it is not yet known whether Loïk Le Priol, 27, and Romain Bouvier, 31, will benefit from the same largesse during their possible prison sentences.
Implicated in the assassination by firearm of rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu, on March 19 in Paris, the two men fled before being arrested on Wednesday March 23. The Priol was in Hungary and on his way to the Ukraine, Bouvier in the Sarthe. The first, the main suspect in the case, like the second, his alleged accomplice, are also members of the GUD.
For years, the duo gravitated within its networks, in which hovers the shadow of the “godfathers” of the previous generation of the student union: Frédéric Chatillon and Axel Loustau. These two relatives of Marine Le Pen are now out of the spotlight after being at the heart of the political and financial scandals that shook the National Rally, but remain influential behind the scenes. Helping each other, tearing each other apart, too, sometimes, the “GUD” family survives – even if the organization, dissolved, is no longer what it was.
A very small world
Romain Bouvier entered this very small world very early on. Socialite, this son of a Parisian media lawyer specializing in domestic violence, raised in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, parties with the gratin of the Parisian far right. In January 2014, we can see him striped blazer, black turtleneck, red socks, buried in a deep sofa in an apartment in the Paris region. At her side: Paul-Alexandre Martin, number 2 of the National Youth Front (FNJ) and FN candidate for the 2012 legislative elections. Behind the lens, probably – in any case it is she who then posts the pictures on the networks social -, K., one of Frédéric Chatillon’s daughters.
At the time, Bouvier was a student at Assas. He originally intended to be a lawyer and took part in several eloquence contests. Described as “brilliant”, even of a “superior” intellect by relatives, the young man created the Roger Nimier club, a self-proclaimed “right-wing anarchist” literary meeting. Above all, he already frequents the more radical networks. “All this little world got to know each other with Klein, around 2011,” says Luc (the first name has been changed), a former close friend of Bouvier, who has long frolicked in the circles of the French far right.
From 2012, we can actually see him, staring at the lens and pointing finger, posing alongside Edouard Klein, leader of the GUD, during the gala for the 40th anniversary of the FN. “He was complicated, one of his friends told us at university. He didn’t show his politicization when he was talking to us. It’s as if he had two sides.”
On the tails, Bouvier is described as “flamboyant”, with “a side a bit like Depardieu”. “At the restaurant, he sometimes paid the bill for the whole table, regardless of who was present,” recalls a relative. On the face side, the Bouvier with troubled dating. “He has been more and more serious lately, and secretive, continues this friend.
“Cult Stuff”
Bouvier, a regular in the Latin Quarter, assiduously frequents the bars on rue des Canettes. It is 300 meters away that, years later, Federico Aramburu will be assassinated. “When I saw that the scene had happened at Mabillon, I was not surprised. I said to myself: ‘Ah, despite all these years, they have not moved’, resumes Luc. era, all the right and the extreme right found themselves in these boxes. But Bouvier is not only interested in partying: weapons and the military also pique his interest. To the point that he will consider, at least for a time, to commit. He will even do a three-week course, called “military preparation”, in immersion, intended to “discover the army”.
A point in common with his friend Le Priol, to whom he is getting closer and closer. A former member of the marine commandos, who entered the Ecole des Mousses in Brest at the age of 16, the young man is part of the “new generation” gudards, who joined the far-right union through a different interpersonal relationship than that of the university benches. .
His father, Denis Le Priol, founded a company, Jeep Village, which has a virtual monopoly in the renovation of old American Jeeps. It has been the subject of several reports, notably on M6 and RMC. But the son above all followed in his father’s footsteps in the military career. Before his retraining in the automobile, Denis Le Priol belonged to the 17th parachute engineer regiment of Montauban. According to Mediaparthe was also an official of the National Union of Paratroopers, whose treasurer was the father of Axel Loustau, regional adviser of the National Front, then of the National Rally, between 2015 and 2021.
Trips abroad
After his training in Brest, Le Priol fils stays away from the far right in Paris – career requires. While Romain Bouvier, Paul-Alexandre Martin and Julien Rochedy, number 1 of the FNJ at the time, multiplied the trips – in particular in Serbia -, he spent five years in the army, during which he took part in several operations outside the Mali and Djibouti between 2013 and 2015. Described as reckless, with a pronounced taste for violence – he was convicted twice by the courts for violence before he was 24 years old, according to Marianne -, Le Priol was repatriated to France in the summer of 2015 after a traumatic shock.
The evenings in town between gudards begin, and, with them, their procession of violence. In early February 2015, Le Priol and Bouvier, drunk on leaving a nightclub, fought with two other men, who filed a complaint, explains Streetpress. The Priol is sentenced for “violence in meetings” and drunk driving to four months in prison suspended. Bouvier, for whom this is the first conviction, receives a two-month suspended sentence.
Group violence
A few months later, Le Priol is again involved in a case of violence. In October of the same year, he broke into Edouard Klein’s apartment at night, with four accomplices, including Logan Djian, the new leader of the GUD. Klein is beaten up, insulted, has to dance the Macarena naked and bleeding. The video of the scene, revealed a few months later by Mediapart, is filmed by Le Priol, who threatens the victim with a knife. The latter is then placed under judicial supervision, pending the trial of the case, which is to take place on June 1, 2022 at the Paris Criminal Court.
“This testifies to the violence of the group, as much turned towards the outside as inside, towards its very members”, comments Jean-Yves Camus, political scientist specializing in the far right. “It’s a small environment, where people spend their time talking to each other and banging each other, explains Luc. The far right in Paris at that time was all about confusion, violence, and more confusion. Priol and Bouvier are the product of it.”
At the time, Djian and Le Priol gave a similar explanation to explain their actions. Klein allegedly “hit friends […]his ex-girlfriends”, justifies Djian. Testimonies that the interested party disputes, but which reflect well the very small circle of the Parisian far right. Especially since the young girls in question are not just anyone: according to Marianne, the first is the niece of Pierre Sidos, a figure of the Pétainist extreme right. The second, one of the daughters of Frédéric Chatillon, then a close adviser to Marine Le Pen, ex-boss of GUD in the 1990s.
Evenings at the Drum Crab
In any case, Djian did not stay long in detention, relatives paying his bail of 25,000 euros. A preliminary investigation was subsequently opened for “abuse of corporate assets”, “money laundering” and “hidden work”, in order to understand the source of these funds, revealed Mediapart. Two “GUD business” companies were then in the sights of justice: Financière Agos, founded by Axel Loustau, and Olympe communication, owned by Djian’s partner and created… by Loustau and his wife. Before taking the head of the GUD, Djian thus worked for Loustau and his friend Châtillon in their respective companies, Riwal and Vendôme security, at the time service providers of the National Front.
A helping hand in favor of a respected man in the Gudard community. “Djian really made it possible to revitalize the GUD in Paris which was almost dead, explains an activist to us. It was important for us, in the provinces, because it was still the historical section!” Organization of trips abroad, of “European congresses” with the Greek and Italian far-right organizations Aube Doré or CasaPound… For a few years, the militants of the GUD tried to get the movement out of its sluggishness.
They even have their meeting place, the Crabe tambour, a bar in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, managed by Djian himself from 2013, where conferences are held with Bruno Gollnisch, former MEP for the National Front, or even on Dominique Venner, nicknamed the “father of the modern far right”. “But you have to be honest: what interested them was more to create a character than to put forward ideas, says a former expert in the field. In this band, we preferred posture to politics.”
The extreme right in streetwear
The Priol flows well into the general state of mind. After the Klein affair, he continues to evolve in this circle. In January 2016, he launched his clothing line, “Babtou solid certified” – in reference to an expression popular with young people, “babtou fragile”, where the word babtou, used in West Africa, designates a person with White skin.
To promote his brand, he posed all the fine flower of the Parisian nationalist scene. General Piquemal, former commander of the Foreign Legion and dismissed from the army after his participation in an unauthorized demonstration against the migration policy, shows off in a solid Babtou t-shirt. The former president of the FNJ, Julien Rochedy, or the bodybuilder Baptiste Marchais, too. The same goes for K. Chatillon, who poses alongside the number 1 suspect in the assassination of Federico Aramburu.
At the time, the band multiplied night outings. Romain Bouvier, Paul-Alexandre Martin, Julien Rochedy and Loïk Le Priol strike a pose all smiles in the latter’s jeep, in a nightclub, in the street, at a wedding, cigar in hand or over a drink. This whole small group works and helps each other. Intersects in Rome, too, where Rochedy, Le Priol, Martin and Chatillon children went after the Klein affair, as several photos of their respective social networks show. Some of these photos are sometimes even taken at an address which happens to be the neighborhood where the home of Frédéric Chatillon, now expatriated in the Italian capital, is located.
The proximity of the GUD with relatives of the National Rally has not ceased with the withdrawal of Frédéric Chatillon and Axel Loustau. At the heart of Marine Le Pen’s campaign is E-Politic, a digital communications start-up run by Paul-Alexandre Martin. An agency also owned 45% by… Frédéric Chatillon and Axel Loustau themselves. Sponsors are never far away.