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.
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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.
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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.