French Domestic Security Chief Warns of Escalating Foreign Interference and Attacks on Diasporas

A dramatic increase in hostile foreign interference in France, which includes targeted attacks against diasporas, constitutes a direct violation of French sovereignty, according to Celine Berthon, the head of domestic security.

Speaking on Tuesday at a panel in Paris organized by the Medef, the largest employer federation in France, Ms Berthon stated, "In recent years – and particularly since 2022 – we have witnessed a massive, meteoric rise in acts of interference on national territory."

European officials are growing increasingly alarmed by hybrid attacks that combine cyber warfare, disinformation campaigns, and strikes against critical infrastructure. Ms Berthon noted that the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have provided fertile ground for these hostile actions.

These incidents manifest in both physical and digital spaces. Physical acts include the appearance of Stars of David, red hands, pig heads, and vandalism directed at places of worship. Speaking alongside other top French security officials at the forum in Paris on August 26, Ms Berthon identified Russia as the main culprit behind actions such as placing severed pigs' heads outside mosques in Paris last year and tagging red hands on the Shoah Memorial in 2024. France is home to Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish minorities.

"All of this effectively contributes to the onset of a war – not a physical or military war, nor one necessarily waged openly on our own soil, yet one that already involves attacks targeting our country," Ms Berthon said.

Iran has also been implicated in physical attacks against Iranian critics living in France and neighboring European nations, and has been linked to bomb attacks on Israeli and Jewish interests following joint attacks by the US and Israel on February 28.

Detailing the motivations behind these campaigns, Ms Berthon explained, "States pursuing these actions have multiple objectives. These may include destabilising France by undermining the institutional balance, eroding our independence, and fragmenting our society … by exploiting highly divisive issues to pit members of the national community against one another."

Additional objectives involve monitoring or suppressing diaspora communities within France, which Ms Berthon described as an "importation of foreign laws on to our territory, which constitutes a violation of our sovereignty." She also referenced a recent incident at Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany where an explosives-laden drone was discovered near a parked Ukrainian cargo plane, warning that France must account for the possibility of more direct and violent hostile actions on national soil.