Several thousand euros for a fast supposed to cure you of Covid-19, people who suddenly refuse to wear the mask or move away from their loved ones since the first confinement, here are some of the testimonies collected in recent months by the National Center family support in the face of sectarian influence (Caffes).
"The pandemic was the door open to these health gurus who make money out of fear of people", deplores France 24 Charline Delporte, president of Caffes.
In 2020, his association recorded a 20% increase in the number of people supported, victims of sectarian aberrations.
An observation shared by Pascale Duval of the National Union of Associations for the Defense of Families and the Individual (Unadfi).
"Whenever there is a crisis and a population is weakened, there is an upsurge in reports. We see this especially after natural disasters, analyzes the spokesperson for Unadfi. The advantage of this crisis for the gurus is that it is global and that it concerns everyone ".
The Miviludes report submitted to the government on Wednesday, February 24, reveals an increase in the number of cases of sectarian aberrations last year: 3,008 reports were made in 2020, against 2,800 in 2019, of which 686 were deemed serious.
Among the reports identified, "40% concern questions of health, well-being or alternative medicine, 25%, religious movements, with a resurgence of apocalyptic currents".
Conspiracies and crudivorism
In the sights of the authorities and associations, gurus often identified for several years but who have found with the pandemic a fertile ground to develop their grip.
Example with Thierry Casasnovas, the apostle of raw food, a practice which consists in eating raw food, and whose YouTube channel exceeds 500,000 subscribers.
"The health crisis allowed him to theorize his conspiratorial ideas with a fairly large audience, far from public discourse on health", details the note from Miviludes which indicates that an investigation was opened against him for endangering the life of others.
Another old acquaintance of gurus hunters, Jean-Jacques Crèvecœur, a Belgian living in Quebec for whom 5G is at the origin of the virus or Silvano Trotta, one of the leaders of the anti-restriction discourse.
"These people are presented as conspiracy theorists but they have existed in our files for a very long time as being at the head of sectarian movements", explains Pascale Duval to France 24.
The Miviludes note specifies that conspiracy "cannot be considered as a sectarian drift in its legal sense", but that certain phenomena "may meet the criteria of excesses and harmfulness".
"If these phenomena of influence and radicalization lead the person to break with himself, society and his entourage then, in our opinion, it is a sectarian situation", insists the spokesperson for Unadfi.
Experts also point the finger at the Qanon movement, whose rise in power in France "worries about the next presidential elections".
A weakening of Miviludes?
But does Miviludes, created in 2002, have the means for its ambitions?
Without a president for two years, the Mission was dissolved in its original form in early 2020 to be attached to the Ministry of the Interior.
"It's a disaster, declared at the time on France Inter Georges Fenech, the former LR deputy and president of Miviludes from 2008 to 2012. This decision has a terrible consequence. This institution was envied by the world. whole ".
"The name of 'Interministerial Mission' is today a fiction, a lie, believes Jean-Pierre Brard, former Communist related deputy and bitter opponent of sects in France, joined by France 24. It is no more than a small service of the Ministry of the Interior which does not have authority over the tax services which nevertheless have done a very important job against sects ".
This former member of Miviludes has still not digested this attachment to the Ministry of the Interior and Worship because according to him, the sectarian phenomenon can be found as well in health, education, culture or even the sporting world. .
"The government has made the irresponsible choice to weaken the fight against sects," concludes Jean-Pierre Brard, who regrets the absence of study groups on sects in the National Assembly.
However, the government seems to want to breathe new life into Miviludes and reassure its future.
Marlène Schiappa, who is now in charge of it, has just appointed magistrate Hanène Romdhane as its head and also unveiled on Wednesday a new policy board made up of recognized personalities, including former president Georges Fenech.
According to the government, 140,000 people are affected by sectarian aberrations in France, including 90,000 children.
Figures which, according to associations, would be largely underestimated.
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