French government dissolves far-right Catholic association

The French government dissolved the fundamentalist Catholic association Civitas on Wednesday (October 4), stating that the group seeks to “wage war against the Republic” by spreading anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic and conspiracy theories.

“Civitas promotes a hierarchy between French citizens with clearly anti-Semitic and Islamophobic theses,” government spokesman Olivier Véran said after the Council of Ministers, in which he announced the association’s dissolution.

Véran added that the Catholic association, which was founded in 1999 and became a political party in 2016, “calls for war against the Republic”, even through the “use of force”.

He also criticised the group’s homophobic stance, which sees LGBT people as “a harmful community”, and its organisation of “rallies in homage to figures emblematic of collaboration [with the Nazi regime]”.

The dissolution of the Civitas association was announced at the beginning of August by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin after anti-Semitic remarks were made at the movement’s summer university in late July by Pierre Hillard, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.

Hillard said, for example, that it was necessary to return to the system “before the naturalisation of Jews in 1791” because this would have “opened the door to immigration”.

In a documentary by broadcaster BFMTV aired at the end of September, an undercover journalist discovered Civitas premises in which the writings of Goebbels and Adolf Hitler appeared.

Conspiracy theories

The Catholic group has stated – of the French government – that it wants to “break with this Masonic republic, the vassal of a new world order”.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the movement opposed the “tyranny” of vaccination and the health pass. At the time, Civitas was supporting and promoting conspiracy scientists, including the chemist Anne-Marie Yim.

The dissolution of Civitas is the 34th disbandment order pronounced by the French government since the start of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency in 2017.

Of these, 14 were directed at ultra-right groups and 15 at Islamist associations. Of the three dissolutions of ultra-left associations, two were suspended by the courts.

Civitas has announced, via the social network X, that it will lodge an appeal against the government’s decision, stating that “the fight goes on”.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald/Benjamin Fox]

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