A former commander of the French Foreign Legion is facing prison for protesting against the number of UK-bound refugees in Calais.

Christian Piquemal was arrested after speaking in front of supporters of Pediga, an extreme right-wing anti-immigrant movement based in Germany, during a banned protest on Saturday.

Piquemal, 75, who led the legendary fighting force between 1994 and 1999, said he wanted to prevent ‘the decline of my country’ during the protest in the French port city.

Ex-commander of the French Foreign Legion General Christian Piquemal addresses supporters of the Pegida movement during a banned demonstration in Calais

Piquemal was today charged with 'participation in an unlawful assembly which has not dissolved after warning'.

Four others with him were accused of possessing banned weapons including knuckle dusters and a taser gun.

All five men will face up to a year in prison when they appear in court on Monday.

Pegida had announced a protest against the migrant and refugee situaiton in Calais, where thousands are living in a camp known as The Jungle near the port.

Calais authorities had banned the Pegida [Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident] protest, but the group took to the streets anyway.

Arrested: General Piquemal was among around a dozen of Pegida protesters arrested in Calais

French Army Corps General Christian Piquemal stands in front of a French flag as he addresses supporters of the Pegida movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident)

The retired army commander attacked police officers at the scene for not singing the French general anthem

General Piquemal said he wanted to prevent ‘the decline of my country’ during the protest in the French port city, where protesters later clashed with police and a dozen people, including the general, were arrested

'This is our home - migrants get out,' they chanted today as they gathered by the port town's station.

As the general tried to rally around 150 supporters – many of them shaven haired skinheads – during the afternoon a squad of police surrounded him.

‘He was then bundled away along with around a dozen others who were all arrested,’ said a Pediga spokesman. ‘It was a terrible day for democracy’.

France has been on full security alert since last year, when 147 people were murdered by ISIS and al-Qaeda gunmen and suicide bombers in Paris.

Tear gas and baton charges were used against the protestors, prompting General Piquemal to say he was ‘shocked by the behavior of the police.'

Addressing officers who attacked Pediga supporters as they sang France’s national anthem, General Piquemal said: ‘There are things that have to be respected, including the national anthem - the Marseillaise - when it is sung.

‘I expected you to be at attention, singing with us but not one of you opened your mouth. And this is France - the great France, the eternal France, which used to be the lighthouse of the world.

Tear gas and baton charges were used against the protestors, prompting General Piquemal to say he was ‘shocked by the behavior of the police'

Pegida supporters clashed with police as they defied a ban and rallied in support of a Europe-wide initiative by the Islamophobic movement

Anti immigration: Extreme right-wing activists shout slogans at police as they participate in the banned protest

Policemen arrest supporters of the Pegida movement during a demonstration in Calais, northern France

‘It is in decline. Decadent. I regret that you received these orders. You are forced to obey your orders, but you don`t have to behave this way in the field.’

Far-right politicians came to General Piquemal’s support, with National Front MP Marion Marechal-Le Pen saying: ‘Support to General Piquemal, unjustly and brutally arrested in Calais’.

A spokesman for the Foreign Legion said he had ‘no comment’ to make about a former officer who was now retired.

Pediga campaigns against the arrival of foreign Muslims in Europe, but the Legion is in fact mainly made up of soldiers from overseas, including many Muslims, said the spokesman.

A Calais police spokesman confirmed General Piquemal had been arrested, but said no charges had yet been brought against any of the Pediga supporters.

PEGIDA, which was founded in Germany in 2014, had announced today's march during the week, but the French government decided it was too big a threat to public order to go ahead.

The State of Emergency in France, triggered by last year's terrorist attacks on Paris, allows politicians and police to ban any public gatherings that they consider to be a security threat.