Pierre Cassen | |
---|---|
Born | 24 January 1953 |
Nationality | French |
Occupation(s) | Writer, activist |
Website | pierrecassen |
Pierre Cassen (born 24 January 1953) is a French writer and the founder of the anti-Islam news portal Riposte Laïque.[1][2]
Cassen describes himself as an old Trotskyist and former member of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR),[1] and was a typographer and a former trade unionist for the General Confederation of Labour (CGT).[3] He has said that his aim with Riposte Laïque, founded in 2007, is to create a new web-based journal as a forum for the defence of secularism, particularly against the threat from Islam.[1] Although Cassen still identifies as a leftist and says the journal has a staff from a variety of political backgrounds, it is often portrayed as far-right.[1][4] Cassen participated in the international counter-jihad conference in Brussels in 2012.[5][6] In 2014, he was invited by Swiss People's Party parliamentarian Oskar Freysinger to give a talk titled "Islam: A danger for our democracy?".[6][7][8] He was part of an initiative to launch Pegida France alongside French writer Renaud Camus, Swiss politician Jean-Luc Addor, Pierre Renversez of the Belgian "No to Islam" and Melanie Dittmer of the German Pegida in 2015.[6][9][10] He has been a close associate of Florian Philippot, president of The Patriots party.[11] He supported Éric Zemmour in the 2022 French presidential election.[12]
He is in a relationship with Christine Tasin, whom he met at the first editorial conference of Riposte Laïque.[3] Both are activists and have been fined for hate speech against Muslims.[3][13] They have arranged demonstrations together with hundreds of protesters against "Islamisation", Tasin as leader of the closely associated group Republican Resistance.[14][15]