Introduction
On 9th June 2024, France’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) placed first in the European Parliament elections, garnering 31.5% of the vote. The period immediately following the election coincided with a surge in racist attacks, as investigative outlet Mediapart documented over 35 incidents within three weeks. Many involved references to the Rassemblement National or its leaders, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
That same night, President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly, prompting legislative elections on 30th June and 7th July. Civil society mobilised to counter a potential far-right majority, with voters from various political backgrounds uniting to prevent far-right candidates from winning in the second round. The legislative elections produced four main blocs: the left-wing “Nouveau Front Populaire” (New Popular Front) with the largest representation, followed by President Macron’s coalition Ensemble (Together), the Rassemblement National, and Les Républicains on the right. Macron then declared an “Olympic truce,” delaying the appointment of a new Prime Minister until after the Olympic Games.
In line with democratic tradition, Macron was expected to call on someone from the Nouveau Front Populaire to form a government. Instead, in September 2024, he appointed Michel Barnier, a member of the fourth-largest group. This choice sparked criticism from both left and right, who argued that democratic principles required appointing a representative from the largest group, fuelling public doubt about the democratic process.
Repression ahead of the Paris Olympics
The 2024 Olympic Games took place in France’s capital Paris from 26th July to 11th August. The need to ensure the security of this high-profile event was used to justify a variety of repressive measures that seriously affected citizens’ privacy and freedom of movement.
With the law on the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which was passed in May 2023, algorithmic video surveillance (AVS) was explicitly legalised in the European Union for the first time. However, the authorisation is valid beyond the Games until 31st March 2025 and talks are currently underway to make use of AVS permanent. Civil liberties groups have raised concerns about privacy, freedom of expression and potential discrimination, warning that AVS could lead to even more invasive surveillance technologies such as facial recognition.
The Olympics have often served as an excuse to expand state powers temporarily, which then persist beyond the event. Supporting this trend, the Paris police chief publicly advocated for AVS extension in September 2024.
Freedom of movement was also severely restricted in the run-up to the Games. In July, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that 870,000 administrative enquiries had led to 3,922 people categorised as a security risk being “removed” from areas near the events. These included a number of people flagged under “fiche S” (an indicator of serious threats to state security), including 18 for “Islamist radicalisation”, 167 people classified as “ultra-left” and 80 people belonging to the "extreme right".
According to Le Monde, authorities issued 559 administrative control and surveillance orders (MICAS) against individuals based on unattributed intelligence reports. These measures notably impacted people who had not been convicted or even charged with any crime, raising concerns over their arbitrary application. The orders prevent the person they’re issued against from leaving a certain area, and require them to report daily to a police station – effectively amounting to house arrest. The media reported the testimony of one person who had been issued with a MICAS order, despite never having been convicted of a criminal offence and having a security clearance due to his employment at the airport, whose employment contract was suspended as a result of the measure.
Furthermore, MICAS orders were deployed on a large scale well before the Games and lasted three months, far beyond the event’s timeline. This widespread, prolonged restriction on freedoms is unprecedented outside the state of emergency declared after the November 2015 terror attacks, according to Le Monde.
Freedom of association
Attacks on Organisations Defending Rights
In France, organisations advocating for fundamental rights increasingly face harassment and aggression. Associations opposing police violence, defending the rights of refugees and combating far-right ideologies are frequently targeted.
On 31st May 2024, in Quimperlé-Concarneau, a conference on the far-right organised by the civil society organisation Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH) was disrupted by a man who shouted “Heil Hitler” and gave a Nazi salute before leaving. The man, Jean-Yves Queinnec, has ties to various extreme right parties, as he was previously a candidate in the legislative elections for the party La France en action, as well as a member of the National Front (now Rassemblement National, RN) since 1973. He left the party in 2015. He was arrested the day after the incident, before being released a day later for medical reasons.
Earlier, in April 2024, the associative bar “La Base” in Montpellier, run by local branches of Alternatiba, Greenpeace, and Extinction Rebellion, was defaced with racist graffiti while hosting journalist Ricardo Parreira, who studies far-right symbols. Around the same time, La Cimade, an organisation working to advance the rights of refugees and migrants, reported similar defacement and ongoing physical harassment.
On 3rd July 2024, an extreme-right website, Réseau Libre, published the names of lawyers who had signed an op-ed advocating for the creation of a “law brigade against the Rassemblement National,” calling on lawyers to “protect the profession” against the threat to fundamental rights posed by the party and to uphold the rule of law. The website published the names of the 98 signatories in an article titled “a very partial list of lawyers to eliminate,” featuring a photo of a guillotine and some lawyers' personal addresses.
The international organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) faced far-right harassment after appealing to the Council of State regarding a request to the French media regulator for oversight of CNews, a television channel owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who is a vocal supporter of Rassemblement National. On 13th February, after the Council ordered the regulator to reassess RSF’s request, CNews and the radio station Europe 1, both owned by the Bolloré Media Group, accused RSF of censorship. Under the headline “Why they want to put an end to freedom of expression,” the same group's newspaper, le Journal du Dimanche, featured the face of Christophe Deloire, the RSF director at the time, on its front page on 18th February. Following this, a PR agency linked to Bolloré launched a smear campaign, creating a fake RSF website called “Sectarians Without Borders” and promoting anti-RSF messages online. RSF successfully had the site taken down on 8th July.
Harassment of Rights Observers and Volunteers
On 20th July 2024, observers with the Public Liberties and Police Practices Observatories were harassed by a journalist from Le Point during a demonstration against mega-basins in La Rochelle. The journalist aggressively photographed observers and falsely claimed on social media that they had no interest in helping a looted store. These accusations followed similar defamation in 2023, when the same journalist accused the LDH of misreporting police practices during a protest, resulting in an ethics warning for Le Point.
On 1st August 2024 in Gravelines, two volunteers from Utopia 56, an organisation supporting refugees and migrants, were assaulted by police who allegedly mistook them for smugglers. The officers forcibly entered their vehicle, pinned one volunteer’s head against the steering wheel, and fired blanks. Regular police harassment against volunteers helping exiled people in northern France has created an environment that criminalises humanitarian support.
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Mobilisation Against the A69 Motorway
Since January 2024, opposition has grown against constructing the A69 motorway between Toulouse and Castres. Protestors have established a “zone to defend” (ZAD) in Saïx along the proposed route, seeking to halt the project. Despite efforts by various environmental groups to engage in dialogue with the state, their concerns have been dismissed, leading to reported police violence and restrictions on information and observation, as documented by the Toulouse Observatory of Police Practices.
- A large demonstration against the A69 was scheduled from 7th to 9th June 2024. However, then-Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin urged the local prefect to ban it, citing fears of “extreme violence” and alleging that “5,000 people, including 600 black blocs,” would participate. This aligns with previous rhetoric from the Minister, who has labelled environmental activists as “eco-terrorists” and accused far-left demonstrators of intending to harm police and institutions, and even kill police officers.
- Days before the planned start of the demonstration, the police began searching vehicles, and identity checks were already being carried out near the designated location of the protest. Aerosol cans, protective equipment such as FFP2 masks and goggles, cycle helmets and hoods were confiscated by the police.
- On 8th June 2024, the demonstration took place despite the ban. The demonstrators apparently aimed to storm the construction sites of the A69 motorway. A massive, disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force was observed, with particularly dangerous weapons such as stun grenades being used. Ten people were urgently evacuated by the medical teams at the demonstration. Three seriously injured people had to be hospitalised.
- After the end of the demonstration, when the demonstrators began to make their way home, police checks were resumed. Protective equipment was confiscated, as well as one photographer's memory cards.
- Another demonstration was planned for 28th August 2024 but was again prohibited by the Tarn prefecture, which authorised the use of drones for surveillance.
Targeting of Environmental Activists at the A69 Construction Site
The A69 motorway project, which has been the subject of significant protest from environmental groups, has highlighted the state’s inadequate protection for activists.
- On 13th August 2024, unknown individuals burned activists’ belongings, doused them in petrol, and threatened them with a knife, according to information provided to the European Civic Forum by LDH.
- Later, on 25th August, a garden was set on fire and Molotov cocktails were thrown at the property of a woman protesting her eviction due to the construction.
- On 6th September, gendarmes startled activists who had been camped out perched on trees to prevent them from being cut down, causing two activists to fall over seven metres and sustain significant injuries.
- Days later, on 9th September, activists in trees were targeted with fireworks by site security personnel.
- On 22nd September in Verfeil, Haute-Garonne, gendarmes used tasers on activists to prevent them from providing supplies to their comrades in the trees. The activists were then arrested and taken into custody.
These recurring, violent incidents underscore the state’s failure to protect A69 project opponents. In February 2024, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst had already called for stronger safeguards for environmental activists involved in this protest.
Demonstrations Against Mega-Basins
From 17th to 20th July 2024, another major mobilisation took place in Melle and La Rochelle to protest against mega-basin projects. The government used a criminalising discourse, with then-Minister Darmanin warning of anticipated “acts of very great violence.” Prefectural bans were placed on demonstrations in Melle’s surrounding municipalities, according to decisions seen by LDF, though the “village of water” festival, focusing on water-sharing issues, was allowed to proceed.
LDF and observers recorded significant restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly during the event. Despite being allowed to go ahead, the festival was heavily monitored. Police conducted widespread searches, confiscating protective equipment and even water bottles, and checkpoints were set up across a 65-kilometre radius, extending to Niort and Poitiers stations. Personal information was recorded, and drones and helicopters surveilled attendees throughout the festival.
On 20th July, during the La Rochelle demonstration, controls continued, with systematic recording of attendees’ phone numbers, licence plates, and identities. Observers noted disproportionate force, including explosive grenades, against demonstrators who could not disperse due to police encirclement. Observers and journalists reported indiscriminate and punitive force, including beatings of non-resisting demonstrators.
Restrictions During the Olympic Games
In the lead-up to the Olympics, repressive measures targeted activists.
- On 23rd July, dozens of activists were detained for pasting anti-Olympics stickers on walls in the metro.
- On 24th July, six people were held for 60 hours after using water-based paint on the building of the civil aviation authority in a protest.
- On 26th July, ten people were placed in preventive custody without cause.
- On 27th July, journalists were kettled for an hour while attempting to report on a civil disobedience action. They were surrounded by 15 police officers, subjected to identity checks, and subsequently prevented from leaving the area.
- On the same day, 60 activists were preventively detained ahead of a protest involving straw bales, labelled “sabotage” by police.
- On 28th July, two journalists and an activist were detained and held for nearly ten hours while covering Olympic-related issues in Seine-Saint-Denis.
- On 10th August, eight women from a collective of female football players supporting the right to wear the hijab in sports were intercepted while supporting a “Marathon for All” event, where they held signs such as “42 km for our forgotten French hijabis.” They were surrounded by over 20 police officers, detained, searched, unveiled and stripped.
Repression in France’s overseas territories
New Caledonia
Since May 2024, New Caledonia has seen significant repression, including curfews, bans on TikTok, excessive force, and prohibitions on protests. Reports indicate at least 11 Kanak protestors have been killed, 169 injured, and over 2,235 detained, with some protest leaders allegedly deported to mainland France and 500 cases of enforced disappearance. Restrictions on alcohol and gasoline sales, as well as a curfew, have been extended to 16th September 2024, with protest bans in major municipalities until 30th September.
Martinique
Protests erupted in Martinique in mid-September 2024 over the high cost of living. The unrest led to a curfew from 18th to 26th September, followed by bans on demonstrations in several municipalities. A unit of the special anti-riot police, the Republican Security Companies (CRS), which specialises in urban violence repression (CRS FAR or CRS 8) was deployed to contain the protests. The CRS unit is known for its aggressive tactics, raising concerns due to its history of excessive force. It had previously been banned from the island since 1959, when their intervention resulted in the death of three local residents.
Freedom of expression
Journalist Detained Over Exxelia Protest Coverage
On 18th June 2024, a journalist from Blast was arrested in Paris while covering a protest at Exxelia’s headquarters, a company under investigation for alleged complicity in war crimes. The journalist, who had been investigating French arms sales to Israel, was held in custody for 32 hours after refusing to unlock her phone, which potentially exposed sensitive sources and documents. Blast condemned her detention as “intimidation.” The National Journalists' Union (SNJ) later denounced the breach of source confidentiality and demanded her release.
Threats Against Investigative Journalist Thomas Dietrich
Following an article published on 4th July 2024 about alleged scandals involving a former advisor to France’s far-right party, investigative journalist Thomas Dietrich and his family received violent threats. Anonymous messages from numbers linked to the Central African Republic and Israel referenced a past assault on Dietrich and threatened further harm. Dietrich’s source in the Central African Republic was also physically attacked and beaten. Dietrich reported these intimidation tactics to the European Federation of Journalists, linking them to his ongoing investigation.
Access Denied to Journalists Covering Environmental Protests
On 23rd February 2024, France 3’s editor, David Bobin, reported that journalists faced restricted access while covering protests against the A69 highway. Despite prior permissions, gendarmes prevented journalists from documenting tree felling, even photographing their IDs. Bobin criticised the daily barriers faced in accessing the site, while the Tarn prefecture failed to address the issue. UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst, after visiting the site, urged French authorities to uphold media access in line with international standards.
Legal Action Against Reporters Covering Environmental Protests
On 8th November 2023, journalist Pierre Isnard-Dupuy and a photojournalist from Reporterre were summoned to the gendarmerie for covering an Extinction Rebellion protest in the Lure mountains. The reporters faced potential fines under a 2023 law protecting private rural and forest property, underscoring increased legal pressure on media covering environmental activism.