Sébastien de Boëldieu (aka Sébastien Magnificat) is a French neo-Nazi figure, who has developed contacts to numerous like-minded groups across Europe. Being a member and "French spokesman" of the far-right CasaPound in Italy, and reportedly close to its president, Gianluca Iannone, he has extensive ties to the Italian far right. He has also networked with Ukrainian neo-Nazis, for example in the context of the 1st Paneuropa Conference in Kyiv in 2017.1
Timeline
On November 22, 2014, de Boëldieu appeared on a seminal conference of the European far right in Nanterre, France, organized by the Group Union Défense (GUD). It hosted foreign radical nationalists like Konstantinos Boviatsis of Golden Dawn (Greece), Hervé Van Laethem of the Belgian Nation, Jordi de la Fuente of the Spanish Republican Social Movement, and Gianluca Iannone of CasaPound. French guests included Roland Hélie of Synthèse National as well as Arnaud de Robert, the spokesperson of the Mouvement d'Action sociale.
According to Jean-Michel Decugis et al., de Boëldieu is closely connected to Frédéric Chatillon and Jildaz Mahé O’Chinal, both2 at the heart of the so-called "GUD connection,” a shady web of companies run by (former) GUD figureheads. According to an article in Le Monde:3
Jildaz Mahé O’Chinal is a friend of Frédéric Chatillon, whom he also knew in the GUD. Chatillon, who is close to Le Pen, is at the heart of the web of companies working for the FN during its campaigns. He has been indicted as part of the judicial investigation into the financing of the far-right party. Mahé O'Chinal is his number two at Riwal, the main branch of the “GUD business.”
Sébastien de Boëldieu, Gianluca Iannone of CasaPound, and Konstantinos Boviatsis of Golden Dawn
According to a blog reporting on the 1st Paneuropa Conference in Kyiv in 2017 Magnificat is
... well-known in Europe due to his effective tenure of the position in charge of international activities of CasaPound Italia ... CasaPound Italia, representing "neither left-wing, nor right-wing Fascism of the 21st century," has a long history of igniting "eurosynergies" by comprehensive social work and metapolitical activities on the Web, which continue attracting foreign volunteers to CPI from all over the world. Many of them end up moving there, since operating under the banner of CasaPound is naturally perceived as a contribution to the all-European cause and each particular nation of Europe. As the movement named after Ezra Pound, renowned American poet and sympathizer of the revolutionary potential of Italian fascism, first and foremost, in culture and economy, it has always illuminated the idea of pan-European solidarity, never homogenizing and only brightening each particular national character involved."
In 2019, de Boëldieu received a group of the Ukrainian paramilitary Karpatska Sich, visiting the CasaPound headquarters in Rome. They were accompanied by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi figurehead Olena Semenyaka, who was given a tour through Rome by de Boëldieu.4
Karpatska Sich with Sébastien de Boëldieu inside Casa Pound 2019.
Karpatska Sich
Representatives of the Karpatska Sich, Olena Semenyaka and Yaroslav Zakalyk on the rooftop of Casa Pound in the framework of the 2019 Acca Larentia commemoration.
Links
- 1"1st Paneuropa Conference Report," Demon of an Old World (undated), https://demonofoldworld.tumblr.com/post/161878114630/reconquista-europe-1st-paneuropa-conference.
- 2Jean-Michel Decugis, Pauline Guéna, and Marc Leplongeon, La poudrière (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2021). (electronic version)
- 3Philippe Ridet and Olivier Faye, “Avec le Carré français, le « GUD business » s’exporte en Italie,” Le Monde, October 8, 2015, https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2015/10/08/avec-le-carre-francais-le-gud-business-s-exporte-en-italie_4784909_823448.html.
- 4Facebook post by Olena Semenyaka, 10 January 2019, https://www.facebook.com/olena.semenyaka/posts/2302191273124405.
