“I no longer belong to the French Republic Presidency company. Well yes, it’s a company, since 1947.” These words were spoken by a man controlled by the police, part of the conspiracy movement of “sovereign citizens”, in a video that went viral last week.
This ideology denies the legitimacy of the French state, and says it does not recognize any law. The reason ? The States are in reality private companies, the man asserts in particular to the police officers who wanted to subject him to an alcohol test.
This idea according to which States are illegitimate because private companies is relayed by Internet users, on sites dedicated to the movement of sovereign citizens or on traditional social networks. Online, these assertions are often accompanied by screenshots showing a company called “République française présidence” on sites indexing French companies, associated with a SIREN and SIRET number.
FAKE OFF
The fact that the French Republic has a SIREN or SIRET number, which is true, does not mean that it is a private company. Quite simply because being registered under a SIREN number, that is to say in the Identification and Directory System of Companies and Their Establishments (SIRENE), is not reserved for private companies. But also concerns public administrations, as well as local authorities and even associations.
THE SIRENE website indicates for example that since 1983, the SIRENE directory has been exhaustive concerning “legal entities under public law and administrations”. The situation notice on the INSEE website of the establishment “French Republic presidency” (100 000 017) also indicates that its legal category is “Constitutional Authority”, and its main activity carried out “General public administration”.
Concerning the date of 1947, indicated on the sites which allow you to consult the organizations registered in this register, it corresponds to that of the Decree No. 47-142 of January 16, 1947, “making the unified nomenclature of businesses and establishments obligatory for all classifications and all official statistics”. Clearly, it was on this date that the first classification carried out by INSEE, the national statistics body, took place.
Registration as a state company was therefore carried out for management reasons. As Martial Mathieu, professor of legal history at Grenoble Alpes University, indicates, “these services [de l’Etat] must carry out purchase and sale operations, like all public persons, for their equipment and their operation [universités, hôpitaux, communes, départements, etc.]. This does not mean, however, that these public services are “private companies”. “. As Philippe Yolka, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble Alpes, adds, “registration as a company can also be used to avoid spurious registrations, with a protective function. Likewise, the French Republic has also registered a large number of trademarks with the INPI. »
Not an American company either
According to these Internet users, France would be (also and paradoxically) registered as a company in Washington in the United States, registered under a DUNS number. This too is misleading. The DUNS number is a digital identifier allowing an organization to be identifiable as such on an international level (like a SIREN number on a global scale). Public or state organizations may also have access to them. There database allowing you to find the DUNS numbers of organizations lists for example the “Government of the French Republic”, in Washington, which simply corresponds to the French embassy in the United States.