"Reconnecting with direct action": investigation into these sabotages attributed to the ultra-left

In the Jura mountains, three antennae of the operator Orange were burnt down in less than a week. In Brittany, it is a telephone pylon planted in a field which is targeted by a fire lit using wooden pallets ... Each time, the criminal track is no doubt. The acts are not signed, but the symbolism of the targets - telecommunication tools - raises questions: who are these mysterious saboteurs who strike throughout the territory? What are their claims?

In less than a month, "more than twenty" acts of sabotage or symbolic destruction have been identified in France, according to a confidential note from the Central Territorial Intelligence Service (SCRT) dated April 23. And the agents clearly see the hand of the ultra-left. "The most radical elements of radical protest movements [...] continue their logic of intensifying actions of degradations, by targeting in priority the services of the State, energy and telecommunications, as well as the symbols of finance".

Despite the lack of demands, the attacks have in common the aim of "historic targets of the ultra-left movement": bank branches in Lyon or Toulouse, Enedis vehicles in Montpellier, a construction giant in Niort, a McDonald's in the Drôme or a sub-prefecture in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique)… And above all relay antennas, surprisingly targeted in these times of health crisis. On the night of May 1, one was burned in Isère, the third in the department in a month.

Take advantage of confinement to "multiply the offensives"

Intelligence services suspect the work of protest groups since the multiplication of calls for sabotage on Facebook pages and blogs affiliated with the movement. On March 30, a disturbing manifesto calling "to return to direct action" was published on the page of an autonomous collective in Lille. Before being widely relayed.

The author compares confinement to "a house arrest" and denounces "a repressive context". This is why, he believes, the militants must take advantage of this confused period to "multiply the offensives". The use of violent methods is unambiguous. "We must act in concrete resistance, not symbolic [...] To carry out a sabotage, no need to be in large numbers or experience, direct action is within everyone's reach," writes the activist, believing that riots are useless in these times of pandemic. The document is accompanied by a black and white photo showing a man trapping a railway ...

A dozen judicial investigations in progress

The publication has since been emulated, as evidenced by this manual on "how to dismantle relay antennas". "The imputability of the facts to the ultra-left movement of the twenty facts observed since April 1 remains a very serious hypothesis justified by the concomitance of the acts with the calls to direct action, the operating modes and the chosen targets" , conclude the territorial intelligence agents in their note of April 23 entitled "Ultragauche: calls to direct action followed by effects".

A dozen judicial investigations are underway, mainly entrusted to the research sections of the gendarmerie, to shed light on the sabotage. Firecrackers, fires, cable cuts ... The operating methods are varied, but demonstrate an efficient organization. In the North, an antenna even finished on the ground, the base of the pylon unbolted. If blogs affiliated with the ultra-left, such as "Without waiting for tomorrow", greedily relay these acts of degradation, none of them formally claim them. And the investigations trample, failing to identify the perpetrators. "The ultra-left has experience," points out a member of the gendarmerie. They leave no trace, are difficult to reassemble, but everything leads to them. "

The concentration of sabotage against pylons has several symbolic features. "They allow businesses to continue operating and facilitate teleworking," notes an investigator. They are therefore targets for those who fight against capitalism. Proof of the economic importance of these pylons, the government has taken steps, within the framework of the health emergency law, to facilitate their establishment. What irritates the radical militants.

"An echo" of the events of summer 2017

"The confinement makes the antennae grow like mushrooms (toxic) after the rain", one can read on the anarchist blog "Attack". According to territorial intelligence, these relay antennas are also perceived as a supposed totalitarian surveillance tool in these times of confinement. They are thus accused of facilitating "digital tracking" in the context of the project to impose a "tracking" of Covid-19 patients.

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Intelligence services are wondering if this wave of sabotage would not be "an echo" of the events of summer 2017. Under the concept of "dangerous June", a dozen attacks against targets in the energy sector and telephony had been claimed by anarchist groups. According to the confidential note, the concept of "direct action" is also spreading in European countries, in particular in Italy and the Netherlands, where degradations of relay antennas have just been noted. However, the ultra-left networks are known to maintain close links with their foreign equivalents ...

Could this resurgence of malicious actions push the anti-terrorist justice system to seize it? At this stage, the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI) and the National Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) are closely monitoring the development of the phenomenon. "The ultra-left is fragmented into small groups and does not coordinate its actions," notes a source in the intelligence services. This lack of demand seems to correspond to its strategy which consists for the moment of remaining below the threshold of the terrorist criminal association. They do not consider themselves ready yet and do not want to find themselves under the radar of PNAT, which is deploying more offensive investigation techniques ”.

Risk of creating a "ratchet effect"

The subject is sensitive for the police and anti-terrorist magistrates, still haunted by the fiasco of the Tarnac affair. By seizing a case, they run the risk of creating a "ratchet effect" and of being accused of assimilating any political opponent to a terrorist.

In Isère, the Grenoble prosecutor, Eric Vaillant, had been the first magistrate to ask to be divested for the benefit of the anti-terrorist prosecution after the series of fires targeting barracks, local public radio and other town halls for three years and claimed by the 'ultra-left. In vain. This time, he is more cautious without formal demands.

"The ultra-left is of course a track," says Eric Vaillant. They can be anarchists with a political goal. But it can also be conspiracies whose ambition is not to attack the state; In Great Britain, cases of sabotage of 5G relay antennas were linked to illuminated lights: they saw a correlation between the deployment of this technology and the circulation of the coronavirus…