French lawmakers sound the alarm on ultra-right groups

PARIS – French lawmakers are calling on President Emmanuel Macron’s government to devote more resources to investigating and shutting down potentially violent ultra-right nationalist groups. A report released Thursday said the regulations surrounding such groups are weak compared with how the threat of Islamic extremists has been handled.

The report by a commission, which held six months of hearings, comes after French judicial authorities said they were investigating five people in an ultra-right plot to attack a religious venue. But the commission’s decision to investigate only extreme-right groups — and not the extreme-left — has drawn criticism.

Among the panel’s recommendations were tightening laws to make it easier to shut down groups that incite violence and demanding that social media networks take more responsibility for the content on their sites.