In June 2026, Tegnér was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for having published, a year earlier, a special issue on immigration titled Migrant Invasion. NGOs, Lawyers, Judges, Journalists, Smugglers: The Culprits, which included a list of lawyers specializing in immigration law and portrayed them as contributing to “migration overload”.
In this context, Tegnér – who also appears as a commentator on the right-wing channel CNews – is regularly targeted personally, as are his journalists, who have been the victims of several attacks. While they seek to defend their work in the name of press freedom, they receive support only from the nationalist right – the Rassemblement National (RN) and its allies in the Union of Democrats for the Republic (UDR).
“I was attacked last night by 150 Antifa members on the island of Groix in Brittany while on vacation, a figure confirmed by surveillance cameras. A complaint has just been filed. Thank you for your messages of support. No one will ever silence me. Brittany deserves better!” Erik Tegnér wrote on X on the night of 5–6 August.
According to the prosecutor’s office, he contacted the gendarmerie shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday. Arriving quickly on the scene, the gendarmes found between 100 and 150 people gathered around the port in small groups.
Tegnér said he had spent the evening in a bar with friends before being recognized, heckled and insulted by a growing crowd, which pushed him toward the harbor and back to his nearby boat. He was met with shouts of “Erik, get out”, “You’re fascists” and “We’re going to lynch you”.
“They threw alcohol in my face; they jumped on me several times. They were holding me, shoving me around. The goal was to get rid of me”, he recounted. He also claimed that several individuals tried to push him toward the sea. “They pushed me all the way to the sea. They wanted to throw me into the water”, he continued.
Rising Far-Left Political Violence
Tegnér acknowledged that he was not personally injured, but feared the situation might escalate further.
Some of his attackers reportedly mentioned the death of Quentin Deranque, a young nationalist activist who was lynched by Antifa members in Lyon a few months ago.
The video of the attack on Tegnér is still circulating on social media, with comments that also explicitly reference Quentin Deranque or call for Tegnér’s death: “You don’t negotiate with fascism – you eliminate it.”
For months, Tegnér has been sounding the alarm about the escalating use of violence by the far left.
Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, publicly expressed his support for Tegnér in a post on X: “The justice system must severely punish these extremists who have no place in French political life. It is time for French society as a whole to become aware of the danger of political violence from the far left!”
