Searches, individual control measures, or even the closure of places of worship. The bill allowing the extension of controversial measures of the 2017 anti-terrorism law arrives Tuesday, July 21 before the National Assembly. The new Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, will defend at the end of the day this bill prepared by his predecessor, Christophe Castaner.
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The administrative measures in question, adopted at the start of the five-year term despite fierce protests from defenders of public freedoms, were authorized by Parliament for three years, with the promise of a new examination in 2020 in order to vote or not on their extension. These are the first four articles of Gérard Collomb's law on internal security and the fight against terrorism (Silt). This law took over from the state of emergency, an exceptional regime under which France had been living since the attacks of November 13, 2015.
This concerns in particular administrative ex-searches, which since 2017 have become “ home visits and foreclosures ”, and house arrest, transformed into “ individual administrative control and surveillance measures ” (Micas), with a perimeter at least equal to the municipality of residence.
The protection perimeters, in the event of an event exposed to a risk of acts of terrorism, as well as the closure of places of worship were also subject to a review clause before December 31, 2020.
Also on the program, the extension of the experimentation of the technique known as " algorithm " in terms of intelligence, contained in the law called " intelligence " of July 2015. This technique makes it possible to analyze communications exchanged within the network of an operator, to detect threats.
Majority pressure
A Senate report last February found these measures effective and encouraged their extension, but the Covid-19 crisis then upset the legislative calendar, preventing " the organization of a calm and complete debate ", according to the government. " The exceptional health circumstances (...) make it difficult to examine in good time, and under appropriate conditions for debate, by Parliament, of a specific bill on the conditions for the sustainability or elimination of these measures ”, it is emphasized in the preamble of the extension bill.
The text provided for an end to December 31, 2021, a deadline that the deputies reduced to July 31, 2021, at the initiative of the rapporteur Didier Paris (LREM). He stressed that this would allow Parliament to take up a full review earlier: " If individual freedoms do not require urgent changes to these provisions, we must debate them quickly ".
The government has planned that a new bill will come "to perpetuate these provisions but also supplement or modify these two laws (Silt and intelligence, editor's note) , in order to take into account the necessary changes induced by operational needs ". The executive had previously wished to introduce, on the sly according to its opponents, the extension of these measures until January 2022 in the bill on " various urgent provisions to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic " mid- may. But several figures of the majority have stepped up to oppose it.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior, as of June 19, 294 Micas had been taken, of which 63 are still in force and 167 “ visits ” have been carried out since November 1, 2017. A total of 528 security perimeters have been completed. established and seven places of worship were closed.
This record is " modest ", in the eyes of the right: " Our degree of protection has fallen " compared to the period under a state of emergency, according to Eric Ciotti (LR), who wants as soon as possible to toughen the measures to fight against terrorism. The left intends to relaunch the fundamental debate on Silt's measures. The Socialists want more intervention from the judicial authority, Communists and Insoumis, they remain strongly opposed to the " trivialization of exceptional measures ".