The Bloc Identitaire has been accused of intentionally distributing several popular soups containing
pork in order to exclude religious Jews or Muslims; in Strasbourg, Nice, Paris, and in Antwerp with the association Antwerpse Solidariteit close to the
Vlaams Belang. These so-called "identity soups" ("soupes identitaires") have been forbidden by the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin in Strasbourg on 21 January 2006, and called "discriminatory and xenophobic" by MEP
Catherine Trautmann (PS) in a 19 January 2006 letter to the
High authority for the struggle against discrimination and for equality (HALDE). This ethno-regionalist movement has also organised a campaign against the rap group
Sniper in 2003, which was taken up by the conservative
Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), leading to the cancellation of several concerts of the band. UMP deputy
Nadine Morano interpolated Interior Minister (UMP)
Nicolas Sarkozy on this theme, while 200 UMP deputies, led by
François Grosdidier, tried without success to censor several hip-hop bands. Sarkozy criticized the hip-hop group as "ruffians who dishonour France." In 2004, the Bloc Identitaire also organized a campaign against Italian writer
Cesare Battisti, one-time member of the terrorist group
Armed Proletarians for Communism, who was wanted in Italy for an assassination carried out during the
Years of Lead, in which he denies responsibility. Battisti accused the "cell of the Italian embassy" of having "financed" the Bloc identitaire's campaign against him (in
Ma Cavale, p. 160). Battisti was convicted to life sentence in his homeland for a total of 36 charges, including participation in four murders. The French government would subsequently decide to extradite him to Italy, but Battisti escaped to Brazil where he was granted political asylum. In 2010, they staged a protest in "resistance to the Islamization of France" at the
Arc de Triomphe (relocated from an earlier planned site in
Goutte-d'Or) where people would eat pork and drink grape juice or
wine. In November 2012 the
Génération Identitaire, the youth wing of the BI, occupied the mosque in
Poitiers, the site where
Charles Martel defeated an invading Muslim Moorish force in 732. In December 2018,
Al Jazeera produced a documentary entitled "Generation Hate" featuring an undercover journalist who had infiltrated Génération Identitaire. The documentary included undercover footage of Génération Identitaire members in the northern French city of
Lille racially abusing and assaulting migrant youths, advocating violence against Muslims, and alleged linkages between Génération Identitaire and
Front National. Génération Identitaire's actions were condemned by
Mayor of Lille
Martine Aubry and Prefect of the North Michele Lalande, who advocated prosecuting offenders for inciting hatred and closing down
La Citadelle, which served as a meeting place for location Génération Identitaire members in Lille. Prosecutor Thierry Pocquet Haut-Jussé has also announced an investigation by the
Central Directorate of Public Security into the activities of the Génération Identitaire members. On 11 July 2019, Germany's
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country's domestic intelligence agency, formally designated the
Identitarian Movement as "a verified extreme right movement against the liberal democratic constitution." The new classification will allow the BfV to use more powerful surveillance methods against the group and its youth wing, Generation Identity. The Identitarian Movement has about 600 members in Germany. ==Lawsuit==