March and funeral for Thomas Perotto . On Wednesday, 22 November 2023, a
march gathered more than 6,000 people in the streets of Romans, in tribute to Perotto, with the presence of his family and loved ones, including friends from the high school. Many of Perotto's teammates from his XV rugby club, RC Romanais-Péageois, were also present, as well as students from the Lycée du Dauphiné, where the victim attended school. At 2pm on Monday, 20 November, a
minute's silence was observed at the school. France team captain
Antoine Dupont and one of the team's leaders
Grégory Alldritt honor Thomas Perotto's memory by sharing an Instagram post from RC Romans-Péage. The President of the
French Rugby Federation,
Florian Grill, said "It is all of rugby which is in mourning and which salutes Thomas at the same time as the whole nation. More than ever, the values of respect and fraternity that rugby embodies are essential to society. Thomas embodies them more than ever", Perotto's mother expressed her distress in
Paris Match magazine on 21 November and hoped that the investigation would identify all the perpetrators, saying "Who comes to a party with knives? They wanted to fight. I hope the gendarmes will quickly find out who did it. It won't bring him back, but at least it'll stop them from doing any more... murders. Yes, it's a murder they've committed". Sheets of paper were laid out for participants to write a note.
Political response Local politicians were quick to react. The mayor of
Crépol, Martine Lagut, declared: "I feel depressed, because it's not normal for things like this to happen in our small rural villages. It's a tragedy we're living through, and our village is very much affected by this event. It's gratuitous violence, it was very brutal and very violent". The mayor of Valence,
Nicolas Daragon, stated he hoped that "the attackers, whoever they are, wherever they are, will be found quickly, put out of action and handed over to the courts, whose decision I expect to be as severe as it is exemplary". The mayor of
Romans-sur-Isère,
Marie-Hélène Thoraval, believed that the murder was "racist" in nature. She blames what she considers to be a "culture" of delinquency in the Monnaie district of her town, and accuses the suspects' parents of having passed it on to them. Called a "fascist", she was subsequently placed under police protection after receiving several death threats by decapitation, which led her to lodge a complaint. Residents of the Monnaie district who felt stigmatized by the mayor's remarks demonstrated against her on December 2, 2023, despite a ban issued by the prefecture. At the beginning of 2024, Thoraval received yet another death threat because of her stance following Thomas' death. One of the individuals who had threatened her was sentenced in December to eight months' imprisonment for "outrages by word or threat", while another who had threatened her with
decapitation was
remanded in custody.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of a "terrible assassination" and an "aggression that has marked us all", speaking on the subject at a conference of mayors at the
Élysée Palace. Some denounced the attack as a "raid" carried out by "an armed militia" (
Marine Le Pen), a "francocide" (
Éric Zemmour), and denounced the perpetrators as "scum", a term echoed by the president of the
Republicans party,
Éric Ciotti, Interior Minister
Gérald Darmanin said those denying the existence of anti-white racism are "blind", or choosing "not to see it". Senate Majority Leader
Bruno Retailleau went further, stating: "We must also get to the root of the evil, that is to say immigration", pointing towards the suspects' cultural backgrounds. On the left,
Communist Party national secretary
Fabien Roussel stated he deplored "a society where acts of this type are happening more and more" and France insoumise deputy François Ruffin denounced "gratuitous, unbridled, cruel violence", while
Finance Committee chairman and
France insoumise representative
Éric Coquerel refused to talk of ensauvagement and said this type of brawl was not getting worse. On 28 November 2023, the French
National Assembly observed a minute's silence for Perotto. The President of the National Assembly,
Yaël Braun-Pivet, stated that "an outburst of violence has plunged a French commune into horror [following the] tragedy that mourns and shocks our entire country" and calls for "justice to be done, and justice is neither vengeance nor vindictiveness". The French Prime Minister,
Elisabeth Borne, offered her condolences, alerted her Interior and
Justice Ministers to take a hard line with the perpetrators, At the initiative of identitarian groups including Remparts de Lyon, a rally was planned in
Palais de justice historique de Lyon on the same day, Wednesday, 22 November, in parallel with the white march taking place in Romans-sur-Isère. This was banned by the Rhône prefecture, citing "attempts at recuperation, provocation of hatred and violent confrontation".
25 November Monnaie unrest On 25 November, a group of around 80 members of extreme right-wing, identitarian and neo-Nazi groups, some of them hooded and armed with iron bars, went to the Monnaie district of Romans-sur-Isère to carry out a punitive expedition, as attested by discussions found on some of their phones by local residents. They shouted racist and Islamophobic abuse, and some went on the rampage. Some were repelled by the police and others by local residents (including Maxime Lemaignent). Slogans such as "Islam out of Europe" and "The street, France, belongs to us" were chanted. They threw stones and fired fireworks in the direction of the police, who made 20 arrests. Six of them were brought to trial immediately, and received prison sentences ranging from six to ten months. Several of those arrested came from the
neo-Nazi groups Division Martel, Vandal Besak and L'Oriflamme, but most came from various entities that succeeded
Génération identitaire, notably
Argos. None of those arrested came from the Drôme region. Some of these reportedly had lists containing the personal details of the eight murder suspects, as well as the first names and surnames of their family members. The list allegedly was
leaked by certain elements of the police force. One of the identity activists, aged 20, was attacked by young people in the Monnaie district. Local residents protect him. He was nevertheless injured and hospitalized. The man suspected of coordinating this operation is a certain "Gros Lardon", an alias of Léo Rivière-Prost. who left the army for political reasons, is based in
Rouen and militates within Division Martel.
Telegram exchanges received on protesters' phones indeed mention this pseudonym as the group's leader. Other demonstrations by nationalist militants took place in the days that followed: on November 26 in Rennes, attended by the violent neo-Nazi group ''L'Oriflamme Rennes
, and on November 27 in Lyon, where around a hundred masked individuals shouted racist and Islamophobic slogans. In response, on November 28 Gérald Darmanin proposed the dissolution of three far-right groups, including Division Martel''. Between 27 November and 1 December, several people of North African origin were attacked in Romans-sur-Isère. On the evening of 1 December, a demonstration organized by the identitarian movement
Les Natifs, initially banned but then authorized at the last minute, brought together around 200 people in Paris at the
Place du Panthéon. Several demonstrators, many of them hooded, performed Nazi salutes, and chanted anti-immigration slogans ("La racaille en prison, clandestins dans l'avion").
Revelations by Le Canard enchaîné On 6 December,
Le Canard enchaîné revealed that the national center for combating online hate had opened an investigation against
X following the leaking of contact details for young people in the La Monnaie district of Romans-sur-Isère. This leak led to hate messages and calls for violence on social networks, which in turn led to unrest in the neighborhood on November 25. The Valence public prosecutor's office suspects that police officers were behind the
data leaks. 28 and 29, 2023),
Le Monde (November 23 and 28, 2023) and
Le Figaro (November 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25, 2023). This led to numerous editorials and articles denouncing "ultraright" The 24-hour news channels
BFMTV and
CNews were accused of taking advantage of the affair to promote an extreme right-wing narrative. On 27 November,
Patrick Cohen talked about the Crépol tragedy on the
C à vous program, explaining that the young people from Romans were there to "have fun" and "pick up girls", thus qualifying the initial version of the affair. The media reaction was extremely strong, particularly on social networks, where he was criticized for omitting to mention the presence of knives. He declared: "When reactions are this strong and epidermal, it's because there's always a lack of nuance". He added, however, that his aim "was not to establish a definitive truth". An investigation published on 5 December 2023 by
Le Parisien, leaning instead towards a brawl that degenerated, against a background of prior tensions, between young people who had spent an evening together. When the situation degenerated, initially only between two young people from the two groups, racist remarks were heard on both sides. On February 14, 2024, Arcom called France 5 to order after being notified about this editorial. Arcom considered that "certain remarks, devoid of verbal precautions and made in a declarative manner, did not meet the requirements of moderation, rigor, and honesty set out in the specifications of the France Télévisions company". == Notes and references ==