May 9 Committee

The 9 May Committee (C9M, in French: Comité du 9-Mai) is a French far-right informal group created in 1994 following the death of Sébastien Deyzieu, a 22-year-old nationalist activist who fell from a building on 7 May 1994 while trying to escape from police during a banned demonstration in Paris. Initially founded by the Groupe Union Défense (GUD), the Front National de la Jeunesse (FNJ) and the Jeunesses Nationalistes Révolutionnaires (JNR), the C9M has organized an annual commemoration in Paris ever since. Over the years, the structure brought together various nationalist, neo-fascist and neo-Nazi movements. The organization of these events was taken over by the Bloc identitaire in the mid-2000s, then recovered by the JNR before they were disbanded. It was then taken over by Social Bastion and Zouaves Paris (ZVP), both successors to the GUD, in 2017. Following the dissolution of Bastion Social in 2019, the organization was taken over by L'Alvarium, ZVP and several satellite organizations of Social Bastion, and has been headed by Marc de Cacqueray-Valménier since 2023. These gatherings fell into decline during the 2000s, before experiencing a resurgence following their revival by Social Bastion and ZVP. They have sometimes been banned by the authorities, and are the subject of anti-fascist counter-demonstrations.