There is a "significant
rise in violence in the ultra-left movement
," assured this Sunday, December 13 to AFP the national intelligence coordinator Laurent Nuñez after the indictment of seven people suspected of having wanted to prepare a violent action.
The authorities estimate the number of members of the ultra-left movement at around 2,000, according to a security source interviewed by AFP in October.
Read also: Anti-terrorism crackdown within the ultra-left
Since the beginning of the year, the authorities have identified "
a little less than 200 degradations
", part of which has been claimed by the ultra-left, after a call to commit "
" direct actions ": to degrade places of the 'Grand capital ', local communities, relay antennas
”, explained Mr. Nuñez.
"
More than half
" of the degradations identified concern telephone pylons, he added.
"
In 2017, there was also a somewhat identical call, but that of this year seems more followed, there are more actions
", he added.
Seven indictments
Friday, seven members of the ultra-left were indicted for "criminal terrorist association".
These six men and a woman, aged 30 to 36, suspected of having wanted to prepare violent action, were arrested Tuesday.
Their targets were not "
stopped,
" said a source close to the matter on Sunday.
"
It revolved around institutions, law enforcement or the military,
" she added.
One of the suspects, Florian D., considered the “
leader
”, fought alongside the Kurds in “
Rojava
” (Western Kurdistan), in northeastern Syria, for ten months from 2017 to early 2018, according to this source.
Arrested in a squat in Toulouse, he was homeless and had been convicted of aggravated violence, carrying weapons, driving under narcotics, said another source close to the investigation.
Another member of the group was president of a small association of "
Airsoft
" (shooting with a ball pistol), according to one of the sources.
“
They trained under the guise of this association, on land that belonged to the leader in the Indre,
” she added.
2008, the Tarnac affair
Before this case, the last known referral to the anti-terrorism justice for facts related to the ultra-left dates back to the Tarnac affair in 2008, for suspicion of sabotage of TGV lines.
But the terrorist qualifications, the subject of bitter debate, had been abandoned by the courts before the trial.
Read also: Tarnac: 10 years of an extraordinary affair
At the beginning of 2020, the Grenoble prosecutor had asked, in vain, the anti-terrorism prosecution to take up the actions claimed by the ultra-left, about fifteen fires in his region committed in three years targeting the gendarmerie and various institutions (town hall, church, public services).
"
The intelligence services have certainly focused on Sunni Islamist terrorism in recent years, but have never done so to the detriment of the surveillance of other mobilities,
" added Laurent Nuñez.
"
We have always remained very focused on the ultra-right movement and the ultra-left movement
," he said.