Paris (AFP)

The former head of internal security, Laurent Nuñez, returns to the front of the fight against terrorism by taking the head of the Elyos "task force", after a 20-month interlude in politics as Secretary of State for the Interior .

Mr. Nuñez, 56, will be the new national intelligence and counter-terrorism coordinator (CNRLT), placed under the President of the Republic. He will replace Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, who has become director of cabinet to the new Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

In this position, he will notably be responsible for the overall analysis of the threat and to propose to the President the directions of intelligence and the fight against terrorism. Addressee of the information collected by the "specialized services", it will also be responsible for transmitting the President's instructions to the responsible ministers and ensuring that they are implemented.

A senior civil servant working through key positions in the police force, reputed to be a connoisseur of files, Laurent Nuñez had decided to cross the rubicon between high civil service and political commitment by becoming in October 2018 Secretary of State for the Interior in duet with Christophe Castaner, appointed Minister.

From 2017 to 2018, he served as Director General of Internal Security (DGSI) of which he will make him the leader in the fight against terrorism, after the years 2015 and 2016 marked by an unprecedented wave of jihadist attacks.

Ex-tax inspector passed by the ENA, he occupied the strategic functions of director of cabinet of the Paris police prefect from 2012 to 2015 after having been sub-prefect, then sub-prefect out of class in Bayonne where he followed Basque affairs, and chief of staff to the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis (2008-2010).

From 2015 to 2017, he also held the very sensitive post of police prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône. Before piloting the DGSI, he had been approached to take the head of the general direction of the national police (DGPN).

Since the last government reshuffle, the future of Mr. Nuñez was the subject of many speculations with, for example, the hypothesis of a maintenance as Secretary of State for the Interior in charge of daily security, alongside by Gérald Darmanin and Marlène Schiappa.

- "Man of the institution" -

According to a source familiar with the matter, the Darmanin-Schiappa duo should not be joined by a new secretary of state.

During his handover, the new minister paid a vibrant tribute to the former secretary of state, saying that he would continue to "serve the general interest and this ministry".

"By regaining the administration, Mr. Nuñez does not see himself returning to this stage in politics and a fortiori as elected," commented to AFP a prefectural source with which he is close.

This new one-way trip from the political world to the administration, some of his peers thought it impossible.

"Entering politics, he + burned his vessels +. There will be no turning back possible," said one of his peers, a member of the prefectural body, after his surprise appointment to the government.

The name of Mr. Nuñez, who knew how to cultivate his proximity to the police and gendarmes, had circulated to take over from Mr. Castaner.

He was also credited with ambitions for local implantation, first in the Cher region where he comes from and especially in the Bouches-du-Rhône and Marseille.

In the duet he formed with Mr. Castaner, he embodied "the expert", but behind the specialist in security matters, the ex-prefect in love with "the field", had also taken a liking to politics.

In addition to the anti-terrorist files, Mr. Nuñez was also on the front line in the management of public order during the crisis of "yellow vests" willingly embodying a hard line in the face of overflows. He had also been at the forefront of police reform projects.

"To see him go is a regret because he was the pillar of the future white paper on internal security," commented David Le Bars, general secretary of the union of commissioners (SCPN-Unsa).

Often boasted by police unionists or high officials as "the man of the institution", he ended up returning to his fold.

© 2020 AFP