Radicalisation and the risks of violence in France

In France, the ex-Central Director of the National Police, Frédéric Péchenard, forcefully criticised the way in which the Minister of the Interior is managing the current security crisis. He noted the incoherence of extending the state of emergency during the Euro 2016 football games – either there exists a serious threat, in which case the state of emergency should be declared and all major gatherings forbidden, or else the risk is only moderate, in which case the state of emergency should be lifted in order to organise the Euro 2016.

The Director General for Internal Security, Patrick Calvar (photo), was heard by the Committee for National Defence and the Armed Forces of the National Assembly concerning the possibility of new attacks by Daesh in France [1]. He observed that approximately 400 French minors live today in the Syrian combat zones, and that some of them receive weapons training – a human drama which profoundly changes the situation. Above all, he stressed that the threat to security came less from Daesh than from the process of radicalisation, which affects the young people who go to fight in Syria as well as groups of the extreme right. He considers that a confrontation between the two groups is inevitable in the short term. Finally, he called for a reinforcement of the laws governing weapons, as has been applied in the United Kingdom.