Laurent Nuñez: The cell adopted confidential communication codes and met in rural areas to train in remote areas. They would have manufactured and tested explosives, in this case TATP, which the investigation will naturally have to confirm. In any case, products used for making TATP and firearms (hunting and sports), some of which were illegally detained, were seized. In total, this cell brought together individuals known to the ultra-left and others unknown but adhering to it ideologically. The investigation will make it possible to determine the cell's targets which, for the ultra-left, are generally institutional (police, gendarmes, soldiers, government buildings, etc.) or capital-intensive.
Did other ultra-left activists go to Rojava?
Laurent Nuñez: Yes, there are a total of ten ultra-left activists who went to fight there, and, for some, came back seasoned.
This rise in the threat comes after dozens of sabotage actions ...
Laurent Nuñez: This "move upmarket" indeed comes after a succession of violent actions "of low intensity", which explains why monitoring this movement has always been a priority. Since March 2020, there have been 170 sabotage actions against telephone towers (around 60% of targets), property belonging to large companies (transport, energy, communication), local communities, a sub-prefecture, three gendarmeries. , vehicles of the prison or police administration. I recall that, in January 2019, a fire had targeted the premises of France Bleu Isère. These 170 actions, part of which has been claimed by the movement, are directly linked to a “call for direct action”, launched in March 2020 and aimed at degrading property representing “big capital” or the State. There had already been a similar call in 2017 in reaction to a crackdown against anarchists in Italy. It was followed by effects, at the time, with in particular attempted fires directed against the gendarmeries, and, in one case, a risk of propagation to the gendarmes' living quarters. But the response to the 2020 call was much stronger than in 2017.
This sabotage gives rise to investigations and arrests. What is the profile of the suspects?
Laurent Nuñez: Some have responded to the call for "direct action" and sometimes assume it during their hearing by investigators, but without being part of the movement. Others are well-known activists. Hence the importance of a very close exchange on these files between police and gendarmerie services, intelligence services and judicial services, as was set up by Christophe Castaner and continued by Gérald Darmanin.
Has the ultra-left benefited from the social movements of recent years, in particular that of the “yellow vests”?
Laurent Nuñez: Since the El Khomri law, passed in 2016, the movement, made up of anarcho-autonomists and “anti-fascists”, has been trying to infiltrate the movements on the public road. They infiltrate the demonstrations to degenerate them by attacking the police and material goods, including banking establishments or police stations. This was the case on 1er May 2018 or in demonstrations against the reform of the SNCF. We have also seen it on the occasion of the “yellow vests” movement. Even if, at the beginning, the ultra-left was wary of this movement, before attracting to it “ultra-yellows” espousing its methods. This desire to occupy the street extends to the challenge of international summits (G7, G20) throughout Europe, with the arrest of the French in July 2017 in Berlin. Finally, they also target the occupation of large projects, of the ZAD type, where we find them creating a surplus for violent actions or simply living on the spot. Beyond the “yellow vests”, the ultra-left also tries to launch bridges, to create a convergence with pan-Africanist movements, denouncing police violence, environmentalists or against state Islamophobia. It is a question of creating a transversality of the struggles in order to destabilize, even to overthrow, the republican institutions.
Other threats exist. The man who killed three gendarmes in the Puy-de-Dôme was thus presented as a “survivalist”. Does this movement constitute a danger?
Laurent Nuñez: Absolutely, because survivalism, which we find more on the ultra-right, and in particular in its supremacist branch, is gaining momentum. In theory, its followers want to be able to live in self-sufficiency and to organize themselves to "enter into resistance" on the day of total chaos, often correlated with the rise of immigration and Islamism. The killer of Puy-de-Dôme, who had stored food for several months, was heavily armed and had protected himself by CCTV cameras. I would like to point out that this individual's membership of the ultra-right movement is not established.
Like the ultra-left, the ultra-right threatens, with the fear of a French-style Christchurch ...
Laurent Nuñez: Like the 2019 attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, we are also careful to prevent violent actions committed by isolated individuals who are bathed in this movement. Five attacks fomented by the ultra-right movement have been foiled - four by the DGSI and one by the national gendarmerie - since 2017. Violent action could seek to reach Muslim interests, but also other targets, such as political objectives or institutional. I recall that the President of the Republic was directly targeted by one of these groups.
With six attacks in 2020, Islamist terrorism remains the main risk ...
Laurent Nuñez: On the Islamist threat front, two attacks have been foiled since early 2020, 33 since 2017. Detection becomes very difficult if we take into account the fact that in the last eight attacks, the attackers were unknown to the services and, moreover, had little or no contact with jihadists located outside France. In the last three acts, the mere idea of blasphemy served as the trigger. Moreover, even if Daesh is very weakened, a threat projected from jihadist centers, such as the Balkans or the Maghreb, where "ghosts" have dispersed, is possible. Moreover, even weakened, let us not forget that Daesh is reconstituting itself in clandestinity in the area. The situation in the Badiya desert is monitored in particular. To identify these exogenous threats, remarkable intelligence work is carried out by the DGSE and the DGSI and their foreign partners, thanks to ever closer cooperation. Finally, on the national territory, the 64 detainees convicted of terrorism, called to leave prison in 2021, will hold our full attention.