Vitrol, five years of the National Front Laboratory – Liberation

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Photographer Patrick Gerdussi covered the Megre years in Bouches-du-Rhône from 1997 to 2002. The frontist couple used their favorite FN themes. Looking back on those five years.

We are 1997. I am 23 years old. I grew up in Vitrolle (Bouches-du-Rhône), a new town built between a Provencal village and a commercial and industrial area. I am a press correspondent for Provence, coverage of the city’s community life and amateur football matches for local newspaper pages. I am studying to be a journalist and photographer at work. Since 1989 and its result in the cantonal elections, the National Front has known that it can conquer this southern city.

In 1995, Marignane, Orange and Toulon became triangles. Not Vitrol, despite having the number 2 in FN, Bruno Megre has been parachuting since 1993. The cancellation of the 1996 election calls for a new vote. Bruno Megre’s ban on running in the election for a year forces him to introduce his wife, Catherine. Then the FN invests in this single election: a whole bunch of militants come, a mixture of identities, ex-soldiers and old FN militants. This time the city defeats Catherine Megre: Vitrol will become the “laboratory” of FN.

Frontist policy will address her favorite topics. The brightest events have affected the culture. Enclosing the walls of the Su-Maren (concert hall of the punk rock alternative) or the dismissal of Regine Juen, director of the Lumiere Cinema. She was fired for programming Philip Focon’s short films about homosexuality: “If we tolerate this, we tolerate pedophilia” throws him a cultural assistant Catherine Megre. The streets have been renamed. Associations see that their municipal subsidies are melting, and the municipal police are becoming disproportionately important. National benefits are applied with a bonus at birth. We ask you to show your ID to enter several houses that are still open. FN culture takes its place between the tambourine, the troubadour and the French rock festival, which brings together neo-Nazis from all over France. In the city center, popular areas are abandoned. The city is fragmented. FN will remain for 5 years.

February 17, 1997, the day of the transfer of power. In front of the town hall opposes each other and supporters of the FN. On February 9, 1997, with 52.48% of the vote, FN won the city for the first time with an absolute majority. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

On the left, during the FN meeting in the 1998 cantonal elections, a young woman not from Vitrolle carries the cross of a far-right group, the French and European Nationalist Parties. Right: On February 10, 1997, the day after the victory of the FN, a crowd of Vitriole gathered in front of the town hall. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

On July 14, 1997, Catherine Megre examined the recruits of the municipal police. In the background we see the sign Submarine, a concert hall, the entrance to which will be walled up in a few months. Opponents of the FN nicknamed the municipal police “ninjas” because of their behavior. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

Left: Piazza Nelson-Mandela in 1999, renamed Piazza Provence. Huge tricolor flags are set for July 14. They stayed for months. On the roof of the building, a municipal police officer is watching for possible demonstrators. Case: On February 8, 1998, the anniversary of the coming to power of the FN in Vitrolla, Bruno Megre (unelected) was surrounded by members of the municipal council. That day, IDs tried to force the car of the La Provence journalist I was with to get off the road.
(Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

On October 6, 1997, at 8 o’clock in the morning, municipal agents, by order of First Deputy FN Hubert Fayar, walled up the entrance to the Le Sous-Marin concert hall. The resume is submitted to the court. Loïc (black T-shirt) is one of the creators of this project. He and Serge (to his right) watch as municipal agents carry concrete blocks that will be used to wall the site. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

After the entrance to the Le Sous-Marin concert hall was walled up, a simplified court ruled against Vitrolla Town Hall, and members of the association had the right to return to their premises. Loik knocks down the wall with a sledgehammer.
(Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

Left: the day of the inauguration of the Place Provence, which until then was called Piazza Nelson Mandela. The plate is covered with the Provencal flag of the royalists. Right: Two Ras l’Front activists, including Denis Lebon (dressed after the attack), burn the MEGRET ballot after the announcement of the results of the cantonal elections in which the FN lost. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

On September 12, 1997, Jean-Marie Le Pen was expected in Vitrolla for his first visit to the “FN Laboratory City”. Dozens of people gather spontaneously. Le Pen is sprinkled with eggs. Traffic police officers will beat protesters on the roofs of cars before police intervene. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

The Delessert family will be the first and only family to receive a birth award from the municipal council, a decision made in 1998. A birth allowance of 5,000 francs (€ 1,037) was reserved for families “who have lived in the municipality for more than two years and one of whose parents is a Frenchman or a citizen of the European Union”. Catherine Megre (pictured as she is absent from the city for most of her term) will be convicted, and Hubert Fayard (second right after Bruno Megre), a city council member, will be sentenced to three months in prison with a suspended sentence, 100,000 francs fine and two years of deprivation of the right to discriminate and incitement to discrimination
(Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

During the city council in September 1997, the town hall decided to change the names of the streets. Vitrolles Lou Roucas (Lou Roucas means “rock” in Provençal) becomes Vitrolles en Provence. Piazza Nelson-Mandela becomes Piazza de Provence, Parc Olof-Palme, Parc Saint-Exupery, Avenue Salvador Allende, Avenue Meré Teresa, Avenue Jean-Marie-Jiba or Avenue Jean-Pierre-Stirbois … name of streets “. from Vitrol in exile. ” Activists collect plaques and invite town halls to meet them. Bottom right: in Saint-Martin-d’Er (Isère), Jean-Marie Tjibau’s son is named after his father’s street. At the top left during the inauguration of the stele of Jean-Paul-Stirbois (named after the FN deputy who died in a car accident).
(Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

June 1999, Ferm de Croes District Council. Vitrolla Town Hall wanted to set up district councils to allow residents to file their complaints. The atmosphere was often tense, and images of people of all walks of life appeared on politicians or people branded by the mayor.
(Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

Left: A gentleman holds a Charlie Hebdo cartoon by Luce’s Les Mégret gents la ville during a 1999 demonstration in Paris. During all these years, Luz was an important link between Vitrol and the rest of the country. . The information passed through the anti-FN network. The most absurd stories caused by the decisions of the FN town hall were found in the “strip” in “Charlie Hebdo”, which, according to some municipal agents, had the gift of irritating the elected officials. Right: In the spring of 1998, the young Vitrolle asked the town hall to organize a basketball tournament at the Carpentier Gymnasium. Upon arrival, the orange rings were removed from the panels. The tournament has been canceled. Neighboring houses are closed in modest neighborhoods. Those who remained open required identification. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

On October 6, 2002, after the election was canceled due to a defamatory leaflet against the then RPR candidate, Vitrolle was summoned to the polls. That day the Megre lose the city. In the foreground, Ras le Front activist Dennis wears a Nelson-Mandela square board. Since the town hall remained on the left. In the 2022 presidential election, Marine Le Pen received 53% of the vote. (Patrick Gerdussi / Divergence-image.com)

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