what are the controversial statements?

Gérald Darmanin asked Monday evening for the dissolution of Civitas after anti-Semitic remarks made at the universities of the Catholic movement.

After the Collective against Islamophobia in France, Baraka City, the Zouaves Paris, Generation Identity, Bloc Lorraine and recently the Uprisings of the Earth, it is now the turn of the fundamentalist Catholic movement Civitas to be threatened with dissolution. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced his intentions on Monday August 7, 2023 in the evening. In question, anti-Semitic remarks which were made by the controversial essayist Pierre Hillard within the framework of the summer universities of Civitas.

“You had an event in September 1791, the naturalization of the Jews […]. Before 1789, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist could not become French. For what ? Because they were heretics”, first posed Pierre Hillard in front of his audience. “The naturalization of Jews in 1791 opens the door to immigration”, he then estimated, before suggesting that “we should perhaps return to the situation before 1789”. A reasoning which strongly reacted to the Minister of the Interior who condemned on X, formerly Twitter, “ignominious remarks” and let it be known that he had “seized the public prosecutor”, in addition to having asked his services to instruct the dissolution of Civitas.

What is Civitas, the movement at the heart of the controversy?

Founded in 1999 as an association, Civitas took a turn in 2016 by transforming itself into a political party. A party placed on the extreme right of the political spectrum, and described as fundamentalist. Civitas is established in France, but also in Belgium and Switzerland. If the movement finds itself today at the heart of the controversy, it is not its first media blow. In the past, Civitas has indeed distinguished itself several times by taking action against works of art that it considered blasphemous in particular.

Some of its activists have thus united against the concert of singer and LGBT + icon Bilal Hassani, which was to be held last April in the former church of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, in Metz. The concert was eventually canceled. The singer has since filed a complaint against Civitas, among others. The fight against marriage for all, but also against the separation of religions and the State or globalism are also among the concerns and commitments of the party.