Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Antifa, Elena Mistrello, france, italy

Comics Artist Elena Mistrello Turned Away At French Border As Antifa

Italian comics artist Elena Mistrello turned away at a French airport for antifascist activism

Italian comic book artist Elena Mistrello was expelled from France last Friday, after flying into Toulouse-Blagnac airport, planning to attend the Colomiers International Comics Festival to promote the French edition of her  graphic novel Syndrome Italie. Rather than asking for an autograoh, French customs officials handed her an entry ban under the shared border Schengen rules, labelling her a "grave threat to public order." There was no warning, no further explanation, she was instead escorted back to Milan on the next flight.

It later emerged that the border rejecting over her history of vocal antifascist activism, including her participation in the 2023 Paris memorial marking the 10th anniversary of Clément Méric's murder, the young activist killed by far-right skinheads in 2013. She told La Dépêche du Midi today, "I've never had the slightest problem with the justice system. This feels like a pretext based on opinions and associations, not facts."

Mistrello's flight from Frankfurt landed around 6 PM local time. As she stepped off the plane, three officers from the Police aux Frontières (PAF) were waiting to march her to a secure holding area for interrogation. According to her account reported in Politis, the officers cited a Schengen Information System (SIS) alert flagged by France's DGSI (General Directorate for Internal Security) and the DLPAJ (Directorate of Public Liberties and Legal Affairs), triggered by passenger data from the API-PNR files. "You're a serious threat to public order," they allegedly told her, refusing to elaborate or show any file. With no criminal record and zero prior bans, Mistrello was given two choices: board the immediate return flight to Italy or face detention in a Centre de Rétention Administrative (CRA), France's migrant holding facilities. She chose the former, only receiving the official repatriation order mid-air. The Colomiers festival issued a swift statement of solidarity alongside her French publisher, Presque Lune Éditions.

As Mistrello put it in Politis, her expulsion isn't just a personal slight; it's a warning shot to every creator wielding art as a weapon against what they see as injustice.  It also coincided with the French release of Syndrome Italie, her graphic novel co-created with writer Tiziana Francesca Vaccaro looking at a cluster of debilitating physical and psychological illnesses afflicting Eastern European women who spent years as undocumented caregivers in Italy. Mistrello's own work includes Palestinian solidarity posts, the mocking of laws and legalities, and antifa content.

On an Instagram post titled "Petite Chronique d'un Refus Forcé, Toulouse 2025," Mistrello chronicled the humiliation, detailing the curt officers, the denied requests for a lawyer or consular contact, and the sinking realization that her work's themes of migration, exploitation, and resistance, might have painted a target on her back. "This border control concerns everyone, especially migrants first," she wrote, tying her personal "bad experience" to broader systemic repression.

The Syndicat National des Auteurs et Compositeurs (SNAC) issued an open letter to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau today, demanding a probe into the "dysfunctions" and ironclad protections for artists' mobility. Colomiers organizers and BubbleBD decried it as outright censorship, while La Dépêche sources confirmed the DGSI's role, fueling cries of "authoritarian drift." Toulouse councilor François Piquemal decried selective Schengen enforcement saying "far-right guests get the red carpet, but antifascists get the boot." Mistrello plans to challenge the ban in court, seeking SIS file access and ECHR appeal grounds. "In 2025, how can someone be denied entry without clear explanation?" she asked La Dépêche. It could of coutrse be worse, just ask Rebecca Burke…

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