French Identitarian Activists Arrested Following ‘Defend Europe’ Mission in the Alps

Several members of the French hipster-right anti-mass migration Génération Identitaire were arrested this week for their participation in last year’s “Defend Europe” mission along the French-Italian border.

The activists were arrested Tuesday morning in Lyon, including the group’s spokesman Romain Espino. Prosecutors later stated their arrests were in connection with the Defend Europe mission last year in the Col de l’Echelle area, L’Express reports.

Génération Identitaire provided a statement to Breitbart London from activist Anaïs Lignier who was among those arrested {snip}.

“This morning, along with two other Génération Identitaire members, I was placed in police custody on the order of the Gap prosecutor, for the absurd motive of ‘interference in public service,’” Ms Lignier said.

“In particular, we built a symbolic border at the Col de l’Echelle and flew over the area with helicopters. In fact, Emmanuel Macron’s government never forgave us for humiliating him on the 21st of April, when we forced him to send police and gendarmerie reinforcements to secure the Franco-Italian border,” she added.

Lignier also slammed the French authorities for waiting nearly a year to act against the activists{snip}.

The activist also claimed that police were less interested in the Defend Europe mission and more curious about the group’s inner workings as well as connections to political parties and others.

“We are therefore on a clearly political and even partisan procedure. Of course, I exercised my right to silence,” Lignier said and added that the group would not back down as a result of the arrests and would “always remain at the forefront of the defence of our people and our civilisation.”

{snip}