The bill strengthening “anti-terrorism” measures and intelligence was approved by the Senate on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. With 251 votes in favor, 27 against and 66 abstentions, the senators gave the green light to this text which perpetuates measures inspired by the state of emergency. The latter, mostly on the right, approved it at first reading, after the National Assembly, but modified several articles. Deputies and senators will try to agree on a common text. In case of failure, a new reading will be organized in both chambers, the Assembly having the last word.
Announced in the wake of the attack against a police officer in Rambouillet (Yvelines) in April, this new bill in the anti-terrorism arsenal had long been scheduled. In particular, it aims to bring four emblematic but experimental measures of the “internal security and fight against terrorism” (Silt) law of 2017 into ordinary law.
The left opposed to measures on intelligence
The objective of the intelligence component is to draw the consequences of the technological and legal developments of the last five years. While it generally satisfies the right-wing senatorial majority, the text has encountered strong opposition from the left. The CRCE groups with a communist and environmentalist majority thus defended, without success, two motions of rejection en bloc. Esther Benbassa (environmentalist) castigated “liberticidal” provisions, Eliane Assassi (CRCE) a “security escalation”.
The PS, which wanted the Silt measures “to remain provisional”, announced that it would seize the Constitutional Council. The Minister for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa, for her part, defended a balanced bill, “essential” to those who fight against the terrorist threat.
Extension of measures taken during the state of emergency
Security perimeters, closure of places of worship, individual administrative control and surveillance measures (Micas) and home visits: these four administrative police measures followed on from state of emergency measures, implemented for two years after the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015. Unsurprisingly, the Senate approved their perpetuation, the Senate rapporteur Marc-Philippe Daubresse (LR), however regretting a waste of time. The Senate had already voted last October, but the government then wished to stick to a one-year extension.
The senators refused the extension to two years of the duration of the Micas for people convicted of “terrorism” leaving prison, arguing a constitutional risk. The rapporteur proposed instead “a comprehensive measure”, which also makes it possible to strengthen another article of the text, creating a judicial measure of prevention of terrorist recidivism and reintegration. The senators replaced it, against the advice of the government, by “a judicial measure aimed not only at social rehabilitation, but also at monitoring the individual”. It takes up a bill from the chairman of the commission of laws François-Noël Buffet (LR).
Last July, the Parliament adopted a law “establishing security measures against perpetrators of terrorist offenses at the end of their sentence”, but it had been rejected by the Constitutional Council.
Access to certain archives
With regard to the intelligence aspect, the Senate voted to perpetuate the technique known as the algorithm which makes it possible to analyze Internet browsing data provided by telecom operators. But for its extension to connection URLs, it preferred to limit itself to an experiment. The services will have a specific information retention regime to improve artificial intelligence tools.
The project also proposes to liberalize access to certain archives for study and research purposes, but introduces in return for the most sensitive documents exceptions to the fifty-year period provided for declassification. Relaying the concerns of historians, senators from different sides have stepped up to the plate against this article, like the centrist Catherine Morin-Desailly who denounced “a historical decline in the principle of free disclosure of archives”. Long defended by the Minister of Defense Florence Parly, the device was validated by the Senate in an electric atmosphere.