Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Annette Riedl / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP 11:02 a.m., February 13, 2024
The National Assembly took up a bill on Tuesday afternoon to strengthen the fight against sectarian abuses, particularly online, where new gurus and their promises of personal development abound.
This text of limited scope was approved by the Senate just before Christmas but with several modifications to which the Assembly could return during this first reading. In committee, the deputies for example reinstated an article creating a new offense of placement or maintenance in a state of "psychological subjection", in order to better understand the "specificities of sectarian influence", according to the government.
This bill also establishes as an aggravating circumstance the abuse of weakness committed by means of a digital or electronic medium, the penalties being increased from three years of imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros today to five years of imprisonment. and 750,000 euros fine if the proposed law comes into force. The deputies of the Laws Committee also supported the creation of the offense of "provocation to the abandonment or abstention of care, or to the adoption of practices" exposing to a "serious risk to health", a measure that the Senate had removed.
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Protection of minors
The text, the subject of 180 amendments, also intends to protect minors with extended limitation periods. The government hopes that this law will make it possible to deal with the transformation of sectarian excesses, particularly on the internet. “A multitude of groups or individuals are investing, in particular, in the fields of health, food and well-being, but also personal development, coaching, training,” notes the executive in the forward -about the bill.
Renaissance rapporteur Brigitte Liso underlines that “the number of reports” of sectarian abuses has “almost doubled between 2015 and 2021”, with 4,020 recorded in 2021 by the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes). "New forms of abuse have appeared, favored by the proliferation of small structures and especially the emergence of 'gurus 2.0' who, by exploiting social networks, propagate their doctrine and place people under their harmful influence", further warns the elected from the North. In committee, the left judged the text to be too focused on "repression", rather than on prevention.