They participated, like every week, in a towing operation on campus. Thursday September 21, five students from the University of Nanterre, all activists within the “Young People with Macron” (JAM) movement, were attacked by around ten activists from the small far-left group “La Jeune Garde”. The political movement JAM denounced these acts on X (formerly Twitter), demanding “the dissolution of this small group” and “all those who advocate violence as a mode of action”.
These five students had arranged to meet at 6 p.m., at the Nicole Dreyfus course, at the entrance to the university. Every week, they participate in towing and pasting operations to detail the measures put in place by the government. As soon as they arrived on September 21, they noticed the presence of activists from the “Young Guard”, who had come to put up posters for the demonstration “against police violence” on September 23 in Paris, organized at the initiative of several left-wing parties.
“Even before we deployed our leaflets, they identified us and immediately headed towards us,” says Elie Halphen, referent 92 of the political movement “Young People with Macron”. After violent threats, the ultra-left activists asked the five students to leave the premises, claiming that they had “nothing to do there”, the University of Nanterre being, according to them, “a land of the left”, confirms a source close to the matter.
Far from imagining that the threats would be carried out, the young Macronists were able to tow without incident for around twenty minutes, before being victims of a new attempt at intimidation, this time more violent.
“Ten people showed up to tear off our leaflets, push us around, some kicked and were pushed violently,” explains the JAM representative. These activists of the “Young Guard”, all covered in surgical masks to conceal their identity, then, he continues, surrounded each of the five young people, insulting them in a virulent manner.
“If we had not left, things would have degenerated,” laments Elie Halphen, denouncing a “political radicalization” on the Nanterre campus where the extreme left, he says, is “very present.” “The university must remain a place where the debate of ideas is possible,” underlines the activist, adding that a complaint was “immediately filed”. Contacted by Le Figaro, neither the University of Nanterre nor the Jeune Garde responded to our requests.