Mistrust is growing with regard to telecommunications installations and the degradation is increasing. On the ground, however, identifying suspects is difficult.
“The earth, across all its expanses, is equipped and gridded by telecommunications facilities. (…) Radioactivity, electromagnetic waves, pollution and viruses of all kinds are the oxygen increasingly stale in the 21st century. (…) To surrender is to escape this sub-life. “ At the bottom of these few lines with anarchist overtones claiming the destruction in mid-May of at least three telecommunications facilities in the Grenoble region, is a very strange signature: that of “bats transmitting fire”.
The text, published on a site prized by extreme left groups, is an assumed claim of a phenomenon that is on the increase in France: the destruction of relay antennas, these telecommunications pylons which are used both for the transmission of 4G, and soon 5G, but also radio and television. According to a note from the central territorial intelligence service transmitted at Parisian, these acts would indeed have multiplied, raising fears of an organized national action.
The last date of June 3 and the fire of a new antenna of mobile telephony and television, without one knowing if they are the same individuals. The Valence public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation entrusted to the Grenoble research section, supported by the Drôme gendarmerie group. However, in the field, the identification of the perpetrators is less obvious. Because these antennae relay crystallize a distrust which goes beyond the framework of the only political or militant protest.
The three acts claimed by these “fire transmitting bats” were committed during the night of May 17 to 18, at Jarrie, Herbeys and Seyssinet, at the same time and according to the same operating mode. These actions were effective enough to cause a cut in telephone and radio coverage over a large area and material damage provisionally estimated at 20,000 euros, reports AFP. “For the moment, there has been no arrest yet, explains Eric Vaillant, the public prosecutor of Grenoble, to franceinfo. These are small groups, very well trained in these destruction techniques, which do not leave any trace and which, when they do leave them, have never been recorded by the judicial police. “
How can we ensure, if there is currently no inquiry in this direction, that these actions have been carried out by so-called ultra-left groups? “The method of organization and the various documents found on the websites frequented by the ultra-left clearly suggest that the relay antennas are a target for this movement”, Answers the prosecutor Eric Vaillant to Franceinfo. A few weeks ago, in fact, the police worried about documents circulating on these sites and explaining, with precision, how to destroy a relay antenna.
An analysis shared by Olivier Cahn, lecturer at the law faculty of Cergy-Pontoise and researcher on violence and militant radicalism in France. According to him, the founding texts of these groups are publications like The coming insurrection of the Invisible Collective. The teacher-researcher recalls that the ultra-left movement constitutes a heterogeneous spectrum with varied, but organized modes of action.
Telephone communication systems present, in their eyes, the particularity of being both the business of the future, of the construction of the neoliberal system, that is to say the gold of the 21st century, but also a means of surveillance and control of populations. For them, under the pretext of making our lives easier, we get people used to handing over the means of mass control to the authorities.at franceinfo
A type of groups which Grenoble is used to dealing with, so much business has been numerous in recent years. “We can cite the fire at the headquarters of the Republicans on March 20, 2017, the fire at a barracks on September 21, 2017, the fire at a scientific center the same year, attacks against Enedis or JC Decaux, against the Catholic Church of Saint Jacques or against France Bleu, lists Eric Vaillant. To understand the world of the ultra-left in Grenoble, you have to take these facts into account. “
Grenoble and its region are not the only centers of these types of militant actions, which have flourished since the establishment of containment. On May 1, the note from the territorial intelligence services counted around twenty acts of destruction targeting relay antennas on French territory, acts which have further multiplied since. So in Isère, but also in Brittany, in the Orne, the Gard…
It seems difficult to imagine that it could be a coordinated action at national level or of the same group. The ultra-left is a plural movement and we know that there are phenomena of imitation.at franceinfo
For Eric Vaillant, the prosecutor of the Republic of Grenoble, given this increase in actions against relay antennas and its national character, “the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office could very well take up the case, it would allow for a global management of the file”. Contacted by Franceinfo, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office did not wish to answer us.
In the Jura, two individuals were arrested and imprisoned on May 27 for setting fire to a relay antenna located in Foncine-le-Haut (Jura). Their profile does not seem, to date, to correspond to the ultra-left, nor even to a political or militant movement. “The two individuals arrested themselves explained that they were not involved in political action. They said that they were sensitive to the environment, a little technophobic. Very opposed to any state authority”, explains Lionel Lucas, the prosecutor in charge of the case, to Franceinfo.
One of the two individuals, in his thirties, admitted the facts. The other suspect, meanwhile about fifty years old and whose genetic traces were also found on the incendiary device which did not catch fire as expected, denies the facts. According to the prosecutor, the way in which the action was carried out seems to rule out the trail of an organized tandem experienced in this type of action. “It was not an antenna that was set on fire, but a power bay. Nor have we found any consultation of ultra-left sites in their internet history. The main source of information for the two suspects, this is YouTube and a conspiracy site calling to replace, by force, the power in place “, continues the prosecutor Lionel Lucas.
The two said they knew “vaguely” the black block movement and sympathize with the “yellow vests”, even if they said they had never participated in the demonstrations.
We are not on destruction professionals. We are rather on people who are on the hook, makeshift revolutionaries who have monopolized this fight with the means that are theirs.at franceinfo
So why did you target relay antennas? The youngest, who confessed to the facts, said he had heard in the press about the attacks on two antennae in Saint-Thiébaut, in the Jura. “I said to myself: that’s the way to act”, is it justified, according to the prosecutor, explaining nevertheless being opposed to 5G, this technology which must be deployed soon in France. “In Saint-Thiébaut, remarked Lionel Lucas, we are not on an attack of the same size. The investigation is still ongoing, but these are better prepared and much more motivated individuals who took action two days before the individuals we arrested. They went up to the top of the towers to set them on fire, a few minutes apart without leaving a trace. “
The profile and motivation of the perpetrators of these acts therefore still seem difficult to determine. Especially since, since the start of containment, a number of conspiracy theories have been circulating about the hasty installation of 5G in France. In Brittany, where several actions of the same ilk have been carried out, the police also come up against the plurality of profiles. “In fact, all of this is a bit hybrid. We cannot say that it is always the extreme left or that it never concerns the extreme left … It seems quite spontaneous and coming from citizens who want to do battle “, valued Eric Bothorel, the deputy of Côtes-d’Armor.
The elected representative of the Republic on the move worries about a phenomenon “new and increasing”, carried by a conspiratorial discourse. A discourse that creates doubt in a more rational part of the population. The challenge, according to Eric Bothorel, is to manage to counter these anxieties with clear scientific answers.
Certain environmental considerations are not delusional, because we have not yet put science back in the middle of the village and produced studies which would make it possible to evacuate these anxieties.at franceinfo
The member points to the responsibility for these “Facebook pages” who relay this type of theories. “One can imagine that these groups also see these relay antennas as a symbol of the State or communities. In the period which has just passed, it is not only the radio stations which have been the subject of targeted actions. There is a whole section of the population that engages in this type of act. ” An analysis confirmed by one of the main French operators, including agents “work tirelessly to repair the damage caused to the network”, we explain to franceinfo. The company has chosen to remain anonymous, so as not to risk seeing these actions multiply against it.
This same telephone operator must ensure security “tens of thousands of sites” in France. “For some, where acts of vandalism are repeated, we work with the town hall or the police”, he continues.
We have even put in place decoys, false relay antenna installations to trap vandals. We get there …at franceinfo
Of “never seen”, he explains to franceinfo. Especially since operators are preparing for these degradations to multiply, with the imminent arrival of 5G. “We have a solid subject, which is to produce scientific evidence that demonstrates that the use of 5G has no harmful impact”, supports MP Eric Bothorel. A task which, according to him, should not be incumbent on the executive or the majority, which would not be audible in a context of distrust. “It is up to neutral institutions to do so”, concludes the elected official.
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