It’s not the first time they make a ridiculous trial like this, nothing sticks in court but the trial is the ‘sentence’. 18 months in isolation in a jail before the trial even begin. There will be no condamnation but they had to go trought this, it sets an example for people who consider alternatives way of lifes.

The point is to keep everyone in line, ruling by fear, probably because they expect times of chaos. These cham trials are stress tests of how fucked up a state can be to keep peoples’ head down.

The fascists militias are not so much considered a threat, they share the same values and the level of violence is the same as cops, just the uniform is different. They do the dirty job police can not (yet) do in the open. If the political presure to end far-right terror is too strong there is always the option to throw these dumb fucks under the bus, disolve these organizations, have a speech on ‘Hitler was nasty and nazis shall not rise again’, and start fresh. The french state fears the ungovernable ones and these are not far-right.