The Council of State validates the expansion of intelligence files

The police and the gendarmerie will be able to file political opinions, union memberships and health data in the name of state security, the Council of State confirmed on Monday, rejecting requests from unions denouncing the "dangerousness" of these files .

The highest administrative court considered that the three contested decrees, which broaden the possibilities of registration, did not disproportionately affect the freedom of opinion, conscience and religion or freedom of association.

Unions denounced the "specter of Big brother in 2021"

The Council of State had been seized in summary proceedings (emergency procedure) by several trade union centers including the CGT, FO or FSU, but also the Syndicat de la magistrature and the Syndicat des Avocats de France (SM and SAF, classified to left), who denounced the "specter of Big brother in 2021".

The decrees, published on December 4 after a favorable opinion from the Council of State, authorize police and gendarmes to mention the "political opinions", "philosophical and religious convictions", and "union membership" of their targets, while the previous texts were limited to listing "activities".

Identifiers, photos and comments posted on social networks will also be listed there, as will psychological and psychiatric disorders "revealing a particular dangerousness".

In addition to natural persons, "legal persons", such as associations, are also covered.

In detail, the decrees relate to three files: the Pasp (prevention of attacks on public security) of the police;

the Gipasp (information management and prevention of attacks on public security) of the gendarmes and the EASP (administrative investigations related to public security) used before the recruitment of civil servants in sensitive positions.

At the beginning of November, 60,686 people were registered with Pasp, 67,000 with Gipasp and 221,711 with EASP, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The Interior Ministry refutes any desire to "create a crime of opinion"

Previously limited to hooligans and violent demonstrators, these files will now also list the data of people suspected of terrorist activities or likely "to undermine the integrity of the territory or the institutions of the Republic", a concept "vague" according to its critics.

Faced with the commotion on the left and among the defenders of freedoms, the Minister of the Interior has repeatedly refuted any desire to "create a crime of opinion" or mass surveillance.

The attack on the decrees before the Council of State took place against a backdrop of repeated accusations of authoritarian drift by the government, in particular with the restrictions imposed in the context of the state of health emergency and the proposed Global Security law.

In 2008, the famous file called "Edvige", which provided in particular to identify people exercising or having exercised a political, union or economic mandate, had aroused such an outcry that it had been withdrawn.