Funny, disturbing, incomprehensible… The video of a couple filming themselves while being stopped by the police has all the ingredients of a hidden camera. Except it’s not. Spotted by Vincent Filbustier, a Belgian presenting himself as a specialist in fake news and social networks, this video illustrates the arrival in France of a strange movement born in the United States, that of “sovereign citizens”.
The sequence is long, almost 10 minutes. It is filmed by a couple in a car after they were intercepted by the police in order to carry out a road check. While driving, the man refuses to submit to an alcohol test. “I depend on the jurisdiction of the common law court, the court of the people, by the people and for the people,” he says. Brandishing a “freedom card” to the gendarme, the motorist claims that this constitutes both his identity card and his driving license.
“I am not entering into a contract with you”
“I no longer belong to the French Republic company, it has been a company since 1947,” the man continues. “And you are also registered with the SEC Washington DC under a number […], which makes you mercenaries on French soil,” he explains to the gendarmes. “Ah, you want to play,” one of the gendarmes replied. “I have no contract with you,” the man retorts… A dialogue of the deaf between the soldiers and the couple which ends with the latter being arrested.
“This video was posted by the couple on a Telegram group of Sovereign Citizens. These are people who do not recognize any law, convinced that States are private companies and that as living beings, they do not have to “contract” with a private legal entity,” explains Vincent Filbustier.
This couple, therefore, claims to belong to the “common law court”, in French, the “tribunal de droit commun” or CLCIFR. This pseudo-organization claims on its website that it allows you to “legally register yourself as a living being”. In particular, it provides the necessary documents to “claim your birth because there was deception and manipulation without your consent”. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, license plate or even a “French-speaking CLC card”. “Paid documents of course”, affirms Vincent Filbustier, specifying that the CLC card costs “around 80 euros”.
“To characterize this movement of sovereign citizens as conspiratorial is reductive,” believes Alessio Motta, teacher-researcher at the European Center for Sociology and Political Science and specialist in conspiracy theory. “This movement is different because it doesn’t say anything supernatural, and the idea of a conspiracy is not at the forefront. It certainly brings together people who have conspiratorial beliefs, but its speech is above all a speech of secession,” he continues. According to him, this movement of sovereign citizens affirms that “everything that is legally imposed on us in a State has no legal basis and that, in fact, we do not have to comply with it”. These movements rely on what they consider to be “legal loopholes” which “are not all absurd, even if they are in the case of the CLC”, he recognizes.
A simple scam or a more insidious project?
However, with regard to the CLC, the teacher-researcher rather compares his motivations to that of a sect, or even a “mafia project”. “We are clearly dealing with a crook, because we have a guy who lies to his followers by telling them that they will be able to defend themselves thanks to the false papers he gives them,” denounces Alessio Motta. “It’s one thing to say that we’re launching into a fight to claim ideas, it’s another to say that with a CLC card you won’t be asked to pay taxes,” explains -he.
However, if it is rather widespread in the United States where it even worries the authorities, the sovereign citizens movement seems not very present in France, “a few dozen or even hundreds of people at most”, estimates the conspiracy specialist. If the gendarmes even have fun with “X”, Alessio Motta remains suspicious: “What we have to ask ourselves is the intention behind all this. Simply make money from poor people or start a more political project in the long term. »