A kitchen area, toilets, a bed on the mezzanine, a sofa bed, a coffee table, storage… At first glance, nothing very extraordinary. Except that you enter this accommodation through a hatch with hydraulic jacks before passing through a decontamination airlock, and that its roof is covered with activated carbon filters which protect against radioactive fallout in the event of a nuclear explosion. Welcome to an atomic shelter that meets “CBRN-E” standards, designed to withstand nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical and explosive risks. And – it seems – new fad of the French in these uncertain times.
Sharp increase in requests and paranoia
The Covid-19 pandemic and especially the war in Ukraine, with the threat of a possible nuclear escalation, caused a wind of panic to blow. In recent weeks, many articles have reported a very strong increase in requests for private bunkers from specialist builders. A company in the Alpes-Maritimes has recorded nearly 400 since the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin, when it had been building seven or eight a year until then. Another sees its website taken by storm, with the number of visits increasing by 4,000%. The owner of a huge shelter with seventy places in Essonne, built in 2014, would have found takers for the thirty places he had left in four days, despite a rent per person of 10,000 euros for five years.
Who are the customers of fallout shelters, and what are their networks? Or, more precisely, what drives them to seriously consider hiding behind reinforced concrete? “Normal people, fathers who want to protect their loved ones, who are afraid,” says Enzo Petrone, the boss of the company specializing in the construction of reinforced concrete structures Amesis Bat, interviewed by Nice morning and The Parisian. We did try to meet some, but a certain paranoia has set in because of this recent media frenzy, informs us Stéphane Berry, CEO of The Eco-Warehouse, which offers turnkey constructions for companies or individuals. “It’s a tidal wave at the moment, it’s a little panicking customers,” he said. We understand the general idea: when you build a bunker, it’s not so that the whole world knows its exact location.
Insecurity and global warming
He, too, has seen an explosion in demand lately. “The order book is full. We sold three or four in the year, there we are between 15 and 30, ”says the entrepreneur based in the Yvelines. He began to offer panic rooms » seven years ago but, realizing that « it was not always enough » in relation to customer expectations, he came to bunkers. The smallest, 6.5m2 for four people, delivered habitable, costs 149,000 euros. Then, everything is possible according to the wishes and the means of the buyer, up to the immense constructions of a few hundred square meters with swimming pool or sports hall – with prices which quickly rise to 600,000, 700,000 €, or even more. .
However, the interest in these shelters does not date from the war in Ukraine, adds Stéphane Berry. He explains :
“There were the attacks, disturbing news items with people killed in their homes just for money. A feeling of insecurity developed. We are not into survivalism. They are people with means, of course, but people like you and me, who want to protect property and people. They say to themselves: “I have space, money, I’m adding an annex. Anyway, it’s an enhancement of my house, I won’t lose money.” »
Another reason cited is extreme weather events, which are becoming more and more frequent. A bunker is seen as a shelter in the event of a heat wave, earthquake or major storm. “And then with the Covid came the fear of health and biological risks or contamination by water. I heard that a lot, adds the business manager. In fact, the bunker is a convergence of all the fears aroused by today’s society: insecurity, pandemic, contamination and global warming. »
Survivalists or not survivalists?
In May 2019, a series titled To survive was broadcast on France TV Slash. Director Alexandre Pierrin told, in five 15-minute episodes, the lives of men and women who were preparing for the worst – whatever its nature. Among them, Catherine and Pierre, a couple who had a 16m2 bunker installed in their garden, in which they could “hold six for three months”. In the first episode, we hear Catherine say she is “worried about the future”. She sees in the news what resembles for her the beginnings of a conflict: forced militarization, economic crisis and vote of the extremes. “Everything that is happening at the moment has already existed and resulted in disasters, she observes. It’s not that we are preparing for this, but it could happen. This room can be used to protect our family. »
Survivalists or not? No one can precisely define the contours of this movement, which conceals neither doctrine, nor organization, nor robot portrait of followers, between those who train to shoot firearms every day and those who wish “just » be totally autonomous for their food. “We don’t really know what we’re talking about”, recognizes today Alexandre Pierrin with 20 minutes. The director came out of this shoot with a strong idea: “The degree of security is something very subjective, made up of elements from our personal feelings and cultural factors. »
He takes the example of Switzerland, where fallout shelters have been mandatory in new construction since the 1960s. The country has more places in bunkers than it has inhabitants (9 million against 8 .5 million), when France could only potentially protect 0.000001% of its population (1,000 shelters for 67 million inhabitants). “On one side of the Alps, it’s absolutely normalon the other, we will tell you it’s madness, when we are not in very different geopolitical realities ”, illustrates Alexandre Pierrin.
“The system has strong kidneys”
The documentary filmmaker recontacted some of his witnesses when the pandemic appeared. Contrary to what one might think, they weren’t particularly happy, shouting from the rooftops that they were right. But they appreciated that those around them, who often looked down on them, changed their outlook on them and asked them for advice. “Where I do not agree with them is that we see precisely, with the Covid-19 then the war, that the system has strong backs, believes the documentary filmmaker. Everything works, with difficulties at times, but there have been no riots, looting or civil war, as they predicted. »
An observation shared by David Manise, entrepreneur and historical player in the survival sector in France. He does not adhere to anything related to survivalism, “a political posture, of mistrust vis-à-vis institutions, loss of confidence in public services and other human beings, often correlated with extreme political affiliations “. He coined, with a few others, the term “survivology”, which he defines as “a rational and scientific approach to survival”. “Survival for us is simply risk management in an isolated or disaster environment. It is a citizen and republican approach to the thing, ”he claims. For the 47-year-old Quebecer, who has been organizing internships for almost twenty years, survival cannot be an individual process, a withdrawal into oneself. “It was never a solution. And even if we reason in a selfish way, cooperation is more profitable than competition. We always go further together,” he says.
“A relationship to rational risk”
David Manise does not understand “this belief that in the event of a crisis, it becomes anarchy and that man is a wolf for man. While history, recent or ancient, shows that the opposite is happening. When there is a disaster, people stick together. ” It will have been understood, the construction of an anti-atomic shelter is not, for him, the solution, ” already because if we look seriously at the situation, we see that the risk of extension of the conflict is limited. “. On the other hand, the risks of a food crisis and high inflation are already very real. The most useful thing is therefore to learn to be more independent, to consume more intelligently, to prioritize spending. “There is no point in panicking. It takes a rational relationship to risk, rather than getting excited and scared, he advises. People are told, “Just be ready, adaptable.” »
This is what he teaches in his courses, which have been attracting more and more people over the past ten years. He observes “a basic tendency in society to want to reclaim skills”, a little lost with the galloping tertiarization of jobs. But be aware that the French often have more resources than they think. “There is this old habit of self-flagellation in France, of saying we suck, we don’t know how to do it, but in reality you are a very adaptable, resourceful people, very united behind the complaining side”, assures David Manise. Like what, we must not despair.