The Perpignan historian Nicolas Lebourg, a specialist in the far right, analyzes the evolution of Nazi ideology which continues to plague our society and even the political landscape. In Perpignan, at the beginning of June 2026, a tattoo referring to an “SS” maxim on the forearm of a former municipal councilor of the city of Perpignan brought the ideology of Nazi Germany back into the news.
The historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch, shot 82 years ago, on June 16, 1944, will enter the Pantheon in a week. More than eight decades after his execution by the Gestapo, Nazi ideology has not yet been completely erased from the public space. More discreet, of course, in new forms, certainly. But news stories relating to the discovery of Nazi symbols abound. In Perpignan, a municipal employee, former municipal councilor of Louis Aliot, was dismissed at the beginning of June 2026 after the discovery of a tattoo on his forearm reflecting the translation of a motto of the SS under Nazi Germany. Historian specializing in the extreme right, Nicolas Lebourg from Perpignan analyzes this evolution and the new forms of Nazi ideology. Interview.
More than 8 decades later, some still claim Nazi symbols. What is Nazi ideology in 2026? How has it evolved?
Most of the renovation took place at the end of the 1940s with the new horizon being “the transnational union of white people”. That is to say, the rejection of racial diversity has led some to defend decolonization, in the name of a geopolitics of races distributed by continents. In Europe, a number of neo-Nazis defended a federation of ethnic regions (Brittany, Catalonia, etc.). In the United States, they opted for a secession of the Northwest which would become a fascist state reserved for whites. Much less than Nazi orthodoxy, these people were inspired by a Nazism revisited by esotericism and pop culture. Since 2015, we have seen the emergence of an apocalyptic and terrorist trend: accelerationism. Its most famous attack was in Christchurch, New Zealand, but there have been many other attacks in the United States. For them, Hitler’s “defect” would have been his humanism. He would not have exterminated the Jews, which would have allowed them to resume the “white genocide”. That is to say the extermination of Whites through miscegenation, acculturation, the promotion of homosexuality, etc., aimed at allowing the establishment of a Jewish globalist power.
Who are those who appropriate this ideology? Is there a profile?
In France, since 2017, 16 ultra-right attacks have been foiled by the intelligence services. Several came from accelerationist cells. The sentences handed down during the trials went up to 18 years in prison. For the prison administration, I worked on a sample of 104 ultra-right defendants. Half were from these terrorist projects, the other half were activists, often arrested for racist violence. We see that among them, 21 idolize the Third Reich. But above all, it is very transgenerational, it extends across the entire age pyramid. The apprentice terrorists are older, qualified, feminine and rural than the activists.
Is there an active base in the Pyrénées-Orientales?
We have had small groups here for a long time. Since the 1936 law allowing their dissolutions, 29% have been made under Emmanuel Macron. So, there are no longer small national groups but on a territorial scale. This pushes towards a deep syncretism, that is to say a combination of doctrines which are normally incompatible, reinforced by the attractiveness of Telegram loops where neo-Nazism is also a matter of the culture of “lol” and like.
Does the evolution of this ideology make it more difficult to detect or even purge?
There is a profound magnetism of the margins which become hybridized. Evolution therefore involves knowledge of various subcultures, but the services know how to do it. The figures show it: in 2025, there were three attacks carried out, two jihadists and one ultra-right, and 8 attacks foiled, five jihadists and three ultra-right. This is why the services say that the ultra-right is the “second threat”. But we see that for both, most of the actors are detected upstream.
The RN says it has done a lot of purge work, but are they aware that they can still have people around them displaying this ideology?
The purge was first carried out by the great split experienced by the FN in 1999. Most of the radicals having left at that time. Then there was a long purge, led in particular by Louis Aliot. But it is a work that is always being resumed. In 1972, it was the neofascists of New Order and not Jean-Marie Le Pen who founded the FN and, already, they had to purge themselves of neo-Nazis. This is both a question of principle and mechanics. The principle: the FN was created on the model of its namesake in 1934 where all the chapels were called to unite in a common platform, what is called the “nationalist compromise”. The “Marinist” FN and the RN refuse this principle. The mechanics remain: the flagship of a political space can offer social outlets to the marginalized people of his camp, and therefore attract them.
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