Bloc identitaire

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The Bloc Identitaire is a French far right political group. It was founded in 2003 by some former members of Unité Radicale and several other far right sympathizers, including Fabrice Robert, former Unité Radicale member, former elected representative of the National Front (FN) and also former member of the National Republican Movement (MNR), and Guillaume Luyt, former member of the monarchist Action française, former Unité Radicale member, former director of the youth organization of the FN (FNJ). Luyt claims inspiration by Guillaume Faye's works in the Nouvelle Droite movement.

The Bloc Identitaire aims to be a "rally for young French and Europeans who are proud of their roots and of their heritage". It opposes miscegenation and "imperialism, whether it be American or islamic".

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 far-right group has also organized a campaign against the hip-hop band Sniper in 2003, which was taken out by the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and translated itself in the cancellation of several concerts of the band. UMP deputy Nadine Morano interpellated 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.

In 2004, Bloc identitaire also organized a campaign against Italian writer Cesare Battisti, wanted in Italy for an assassination allegedly carried out during the years of lead in which he denies any responsibility. Battisti accused the "cell of the Italian embassy" of having "financed" the Bloc identitaire's campaign against him (in Ma Cavale, p.160).