Collectif Némésis claims to defend women's rights. Its critics, including mainstream feminist organisations, investigative journalists, and now members of the French National Assembly, say it is an identitarian group that uses feminist language as cover for anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant activism - and, according to leaked messages, as a front for organised political violence.</p>

What is Collectif Némésis?

Collectif Némésis is a political organisation for women aged 18 to 30, describing itself as feminist and Identitarian. It was founded in France in October 2019 and has since expanded to Switzerland and Belgium. The organisation is named after Nemesis, the Greek goddess of revenge.

The organisation believes in a connection between immigration and crime, and holds that non-European immigrants, particularly Muslims, are more likely to commit violence towards women. These claims are disputed by criminologists and have been challenged as statistical manipulation by French media outlets including Slate and Marianne.

The organisation has been condemned as racist by mainstream feminist organisations, including Collectif NousToutes in France and the Grève féministe du 14 juin in Switzerland.

Who is Alice Cordier?

Alice Cordier, born Alice Kerviel in 1997, co-founded and serves as president of Collectif Némésis. She engaged in political activities during her youth as a member of Action Française, a longstanding French monarchist organisation.

Cordier describes the association's focus as denouncing violence against women, "especially the types of violence that often go unspoken: violence committed by migrants and the impact of Islamism on French women."

Cordier has delivered a key address at a Rassemblement National conference organised by Marine Le Pen's party, emphasising the role of "patriot women" in defending national identity against migration pressures.

In March 2026, controversy was sparked after a photo of Cordier from 2022 showing her posing with two neo-Nazis resurfaced on Twitter. Cordier denied knowingly making a neo-Nazi pose.

The niqab stunt and other provocations

The group's signature tactic is using Islamic dress as a prop for anti-Muslim demonstrations. In January 2021, the group wore niqabs at the Eiffel Tower to promote a "No Hijab Day" in opposition to World Hijab Day.

The stunt at the Unite the Kingdom rally in the UK follows the same template the group has deployed since 2021 - members appear in niqabs before dramatically removing them, framing Muslim women's dress as a symbol of oppression while drawing crowd responses that critics describe as dehumanising.

In November 2021, the group infiltrated the NousToutes annual demonstration with several members of the far-right Cocarde étudiante to stage a protest against Afghan refugees. In June 2024, the group infiltrated the 2024 French protests against the National Rally to stage a protest against the left-wing New Popular Front.

In November 2024, Le Monde reported that the group had used the Le Pen family manor in Montretout to plan an attempt to disrupt the annual NousToutes demonstration.</p>

Calls for dissolution: what the National Assembly was told

The most detailed public account of Némésis's alleged activities came in a written question submitted to the French National Assembly on 3 March 2026 by MP François Ruffin, in which he called on the Interior Minister to dissolve the organisation under Article L. 212-1 of the internal security code.

Ruffin's submission drew on reporting by L'Humanité, which published 154 messages exchanged in October 2025 on a Telegram group between senior Némésis figures in Lyon and Calixte Guy, leader of Audace Lyon, described as a "nationalist revolutionary" organisation that succeeded the dissolved Bastion Social. According to the published messages, a Némésis leader proposed using female members as bait to draw left-wing activists into ambushes, with Guy coordinating groups of eight to ten men positioned nearby.

Guy was separately identified by investigators as a participant in an attack in Paris in February 2025, in which a CGT trade union activist was beaten by a group of around twenty people. Searches of his home reportedly uncovered thirteen knives, a hatchette, tear gas canisters, a telescopic baton, and a file containing the names, addresses, and vehicle registrations of anti-fascist activists.

Ruffin's submission also noted: at the NousToutes demonstration in November 2021, Némésis was accompanied by a masked security detail armed with iron bars who attacked protesters; at a Paris event in June 2024, the same arrangement was reportedly deployed; and in March 2025, investigative outlet StreetPress identified within Némésis's security detail a neo-Nazi who had been convicted for a racist attack on a lycée in 2023, in which children aged 13 to 16 were targeted.

The mayors of Besançon and Lille - Anne Vignot and Martine Aubry respectively - have filed criminal complaints against the group for incitement to racial hatred following actions in 2023 and 2024. SOS Racisme has referred the group to the Paris prosecutor over posters bearing the slogan "Rapefugees not welcome." The mayor of Besançon subsequently filed a second complaint specifically relating to organised online harassment by Némésis members, which Ruffin's submission describes as including rape threats and calls for murder directed at feminist activists, left-wing elected officials, and journalists.

Ruffin argued that the evidence established Némésis meets all criteria for dissolution under French law - as a group provoking armed demonstrations, presenting the character of a private militia, or tending to provoke hatred or violence against a group based on their origin.

As of publication, the Interior Ministry has not responded to Ruffin's written question.

Connections to the far right

Several journalistic investigations revealed that Némésis had repeatedly coordinated with far-right groups in Lyon to provoke clashes with left-wing activists.

Critics in mainstream French media portray Cordier as part of a "femonationalist" fringe that links gender issues to anti-immigration stances. The term femonationalism, coined by academic Sara Farris, describes the phenomenon of far-right and nationalist movements appropriating feminist language to advance anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant agendas.

Why this matters for French Muslims

Collectif Némésis uses the language of women's rights to target Muslim women's dress, Muslim men's behaviour, and Muslim communities' presence in France. Its provocations are designed to generate media coverage that frames Islam and Muslim immigration as threats to French women.

The niqab stunt is particularly instructive. Muslim women who wear the niqab in France already face legal prohibition in public spaces under the 2010 ban. Using the niqab as a prop for far-right political performance compounds that marginalisation, reducing a religious practice to a costume for shock value and crowd provocation.

In March 2026, mainstream feminist organisations asked Parisian police to ban the group from participating in International Women's Day demonstrations. Anne Leclerc of the CNDF told the press that Némésis "are absolutely not feminists," accusing the group of "disturbing our demonstrations to perpetuate messages of hate against immigrants, perpetuating disinformation, and going after our members."

IWF will continue monitoring Collectif Némésis as part of its tracking of organisations that use feminist framing to target Muslim communities in France and across Europe.

Sources: National Assembly of France / Le Monde / L'Humanité / StreetPress / Wikipedia / France Inter / Nouvel Observateur</p>