Operation Defend Europe

Yesterday a group of volunteers from Génération Identitaire set up a symbolic border fence and blocked migrants from crossing from Italy to France along a widely-used route across the southern Alps.

The video below is made from two clips combined. The first shows the operation in the Alps, and includes an explanation by an Identitaire spokesman. The second is a scene from the French parliament.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Below is an article about the incident from France24:

Far-Right Activists Block Alps Pass Used by Migrants

Around 100 far-right activists on Saturday tried to block a French alpine pass used by migrants in a bid to “ensure that no illegal immigrant can return to France”.

Members of the rightwing Generation Identity (GI) movement trudged through the snow up to Col de l’Echelle near the border with Italy where they plan to spend the night.

The pass is a “strategic point of passage for illegal immigrants” entering from Italy, GI spokesman Romain Espino, told AFP, criticising what he called “a lack of courage of the public authorities”.

“With a little bit of will, we can control immigration and borders,” he added.

The group — mainly French but also including Italians, Hungarians, Danes, Austrians, English and Germans — plan to set up a “symbolic frontier” using plastic wire mesh.

Espino said the activists want “to explain to the potential migrants that it is inhumane to make those people crossing the Mediterranean or the snow-covered Alps believe that these routes are not risky”.

“They are not going to find El Dorado, it’s immoral. Those who pay for it are the French,” he added.

For the past year, the French Alps have experienced a sharp increase in arrivals of young people, mostly from Guinea and Ivory Coast.

Video transcript:

00:00   Anti-immigration militants belonging to the movement Génération Identitaire conducted
00:04   an operation against migrants in the Echelle Pass region in the Alps on the Franco-Italian border,
00:12   a passage-point for illegals. Equipped with banners, the militants
00:16   created a symbolic border with plastic netting.
00:20   Please listen to the spokesman for the association.
00:24   As of this morning we are installed at the Echelle Pass, where we
00:28   took back control of the border, so the border is blocked,
00:33   in case some illegal migrants might like to sneak into France.
00:37   Our goal today is very simple: to be able to show the public power [government]
00:41   that with a little determination and our means,
00:45   we have the capacity to really take back control of our borders. Therefore you may
00:49   note well that it’s about the lack of political courage
00:53   on the part of our public power, which is not taking care of it.
00:00   My intervention right now concerns a point that is directed
00:04   to the Minister of Interior. It so happens that we find out
00:08   that at the moment, on the Pass of Echelle, there is
00:12   [unintelligible] a small gang of
00:16   about one hundred people, who are also allegedly equipped with a helicopter,
00:20   and who pretend to solve the border problem. Those are
00:24   the friends of Mr. Collard, and since he is “friend of the law” [i.e. Collard is a lawyer],
00:28   he will no doubt join me in asking the Minister of the Interior,
00:32   who pretends that the Rule of Law must be established everywhere, and in particular. — Monsieur…
00:36   Monsieur Collard you don’t have any more floor than before.
00:40   No, you’ll have it [the floor] in a minute. But my dear colleagues, the situation is as follows:
00:44   those people over there created such an atmosphere of suspicion,
00:48   of bad intentions towards every living soul, that voilà,
00:52   a hundred of their supporters allowed themselves to go to the border in order
00:56   to push back, in the snow, the poor people who are there! I think that nobody among us approves of
01:00   such a method! We are asking [unintelligible] Interior, what they are planning to do
01:04   from now on to prevent the borders being protected by the friends of
01:08   Madame Le Pen, who doesn’t protect anything, but only creates chaos!
01:12   Thank you very much, Mme Commissioner. Could you give us the opinion of the Commission about
01:16   this amendment of suppression? Mme Commissioner, we have…
01:20   I’m sorry, Mme Commissioner, we have a point of order.
01:24   Yes. —There’s no more point of order?
01:28   Monsieur Collard, your floor.
01:33   Monsieur Mélanchon, who is returning from Marseille, and who must have suffered —
01:37   it’s not the point of order, on what ground, Monsieur Collard? —Yes, yes,
01:41   Mr. President, do you want me to tell you again?
01:45   Thank you for your specifics on the ruling, and the floor is yours. — So I’m specifying it, voilà.
01:49   In two seconds: Monsieur Mélenchon, Monsieur Mélenchon,
01:53   it’s been a long time that you’ve been traveling. I have no helicopter, but you…
01:57   What are you taking? [literally: what is your propeller?] —This is not a point of order!
 

Hat tip for the article: Reader from Chicago.

8 thoughts on “Operation Defend Europe

  1. My take-away from this is that if Europe is to be saved it is te people who will have to do it, because the politicians don’t seem up to the job!

  2. Dduuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh……………………………..

    ……………..it’s them ‘politicians’ who be the CAUSE of all the problems.

  3. I like that they lied to describe Le Pen with words that describe exactly what the current leaders of France do.

  4. Honestly I feel this looks like a weak move.There is no too much about it.Feels like some young people that play around.
    I am curious how many days they lasted
    It’s like when they wanted to stop The Mediterranean vessels.
    Weak , unfortunately

    • As I see it, they’re not actually trying to close the border. They have no power to stop anyone trying to cross and are not going to get into fisticuffs about it. Their aim is to show that a border *can be closed* if there is the will to do this. And they have got the publicity they wanted.

      Meanwhile in the French parliament, the fools and idiots pose and play. (How many of them believe in their hearts the words that flow so easily from their mouths?) Oh, and these “poor people in the snow” are more important than the rest of us, are they? If they are cold, they brought that upon themselves through a choice or series of choices they made. Yes, I’ve become in some ways colder as the years go by. Perhaps that’s the price to pay for seeking the truth and casting aside the lies and idiocy on which a fake ideology is based.

    • Pa, you have a point but let’s see. They’re not actually trying to close the border. They have no power to stop anyone trying to cross and are not going to get into fisticuffs about it. Their aim is to show that a border *can be closed* if there is the will to do this. And they have got the publicity they wanted.

      Meanwhile in the French parliament, the fools and idiots pose and play. (How many of them believe in their hearts the words that flow so easily from their mouths?) Oh, and these “poor people in the snow” are more important than the rest of us, are they? If they are cold, they brought that upon themselves through a choice or series of choices they made. Yes, I’ve become in some ways colder as the years go by. Perhaps that’s the price to pay for seeking the truth and casting aside the lies and idiocy on which a fake ideology is based.

  5. There used to be an effective format to immigration barriers in Europe, where each country was a buffer for its neighbours and the incentive of national order, its priority, ensured each nation took responsibility for its own affairs with regard.

    This is no longer the case, and without an “EU” identity and responsibility, the idea of closing the border of “Europe” is not likely to succeed, much as it is touted by a would be EU superstate as reason to cede control of the exterior border…it is really no more than creating a problem to justify a power grab, including population management within EU.

    The GI must make this clear, that they are seeking national borders not a European border, as it is too easy for those who would seek the EU solution to conflate or merge the above protest into their own large border agenda.

    So in effect what they are/would be demonstrating above is different nations ( nationals) helping each others nations maintain their own border, out of a mutual understanding, cooperation, and benefit.

Comments are closed.