France Investigating Potential Involvement of Leftist Extremists in Rail Sabotage
The nation’s telecom services were also targeted in in attack.
Just before the Olympic Games began in Paris, parts of its high-speed rail network were sabotaged.
French officials are now looking into the possibility that leftist extremists targeted the rail system.
France is leaning towards the likelihood that far-left extremists were behind last week’s sabotage of the country’s SNCF rail network – which coincided with the Olympic Games opening ceremony – French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday.
“We have identified the profiles of several people,” Darmanin told France 2 TV, regarding the hunt for those saboteurs.
Far-left French anarchists have a history of targeting the train network with arson attacks.
The attacks were “deliberate, very precise, extremely well-targeted”, Darmanin said. “This is the traditional type of action of the ultra-left,” he said.
But when asked whether the profiles that were identified were close to the far left, Darmanin said: “We must be cautious.”
Reports indicate that the rail systems should be fully repaired before Tuesday.
National rail operator SNCF said in an update Sunday that it had completed repairs to the damaged infrastructure, clearing the path for full service to commence on Monday. Officials had previously said Monday was the target date for full restoration of the network.
“Thanks to the exceptional mobilization of SNCF Réseau workers, who have been working tirelessly since Friday morning, repair work is now fully completed on all high-speed lines affected by the acts of sabotage. The test phases have been conclusive, and the lines can now be operated normally,” SNCF said in its statement.
France has one of the largest high-speed rail systems in the world. The sabotage has the potential to impact 800,000 people. The repair costs to the state-owned rail operator SNCF would be considerable.
France's national rail operator finished repairing infrastructure damaged in a coordinated arson attack Friday.
Most trains running as planned Sunday, full service to resume Monday.
Police searching for perpetrators behind "sabotage" designed to paralyse high-speed TGV lines. pic.twitter.com/PpLXXyZn0D— Rita Rosenfeld (@rheytah) July 28, 2024
According to reports, leftist extremists have been on the radar of agencies concerned about national security in recent years.
In recent years, France has mainly been targeted in attacks by Islamist militants, but security services have been increasingly concerned about far-left or anarchist groups, which typically oppose the state and capitalism.
The then-head of France’s domestic intelligence agency, Nicolas Lerner, told Le Monde newspaper last year President Emmanuel Macron’s divisive 2023 pension shake-up had helped lure recruits to far-left groups, which have increasingly added environmental issues to their ideologies.
“In recent years, the far-left movements have been known for particularly violent clandestine actions, including arson campaigns … ransacking and destruction of property,” Lerner, who now leads the foreign spy agency, said in the interview.
In a 2023 report on terrorism trends, European police agency Europol said left-wing and anarchist groups typically attacked “critical infrastructure, such as repeaters and antennas, government institutions and private companies” with their “most common modus operandi” being arson and explosive devices.
Meanwhile, France’s telecoms network suffered isolated outages across the country after being targeted by vandals.
French media reports on Monday said telecom installations belonging to companies SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Free had been vandalised, affecting mainly fixed-line services.
The reports in Le Parisien newspaper and BFM TV said cables in electrical cabinets had been cut in southern France, and that installations in the Meuse region near Luxembourg and the Oise area near Paris had also been targeted.
France’s telecoms regulator ARCEP said most of those affected used the SFR or Free networks.
A police official also said at least six of France’s administrative departments were affected, including the region around the Mediterranean city of Marseille which is hosting football and sailing competitions for the Olympics.
New, well-planned act of vital infrastructure sabotage in #France. Targeting the French telecom industry, fiber optic networks were "sabotaged" in 6 regions of France. pic.twitter.com/laykc2eiOz
— BreakinNewz (@BreakinNewz01) July 29, 2024
Hopefully this will be the end of the leftist antics during these Olympics.
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Comments
lefty is the bowel movement of the world
Actually, fecal matter is good fertilizer, I suppose that lefty’s could server the same purpose.
Shocked I tell you! I’m shocked! Far-Left? But we’re told how nice and peaceful they are! Must be fake news. /Sarc off
I know they hate art, and Stonehenge, but didn’t know they felt this strongly about high speed rail.
I’m still ticked off at the French for depriving me of the Olympics. Every time I think of putting it on, I feel nauseous remembering that opening ceremony.
Investigating the lefty anarchists seems …prudent.
Recall that a few weeks ago, in the effort to keep left of center Marine Le Pen from winning, Macron formed a weird alliance with the hard left. This “Coalition of the Brain-Dead” has no interest in investigating any of this.
The silver lining is these attacks in FR (and in other locations) highlight just how vulnerable society actually is and how little it takes to cause major disruption. No way to truly secure it without some insanely authoritarian policy being implemented, though given the public’s meek acceptance of and in many places encouragement of these policies during Covid in some States/Cities …. they might accept it in some places.
The irony is that such authoritarian policies would be use for every purpose under the sun – EXCEPT securing infrastructure. The experiences we had with the Wuflu should have taught us if you give the totalitarians an inch they will take several light years – and arrest you for objecting.
France is “investigating”? Does France and the Olympic Committee think the world is full of idiots? The Olympic folks have abandoned their core mission. It is no longer what it was, or should be. I think the proper response is “goodbye.”
Yes
And who else would be involved? Martians?
Islamists. Or gangs who’ve figured some angle. Or actual far rightists, acting against the new leftist government.
Normally, Leftist governments hasten to blame the right, without yet having developed any evidence to support the claim. Then when it turns out the attack was by Leftists, the perps’ connections to the Left are white-washed. It’s very unusual to see the French government jump directly to blaming the Left. It makes me believe they have credible evidence in hand already, and are pissed off that their own kind made them look bad while France is on the world stage.
I am betting on Islamists.. Many more people seem to be waking up to their nature, will they act in time?
Welcome “newcomers!!” (in French)
Surely that couldn’t happen here, right?
I know the FIB has “top men” on the job!!
Simply impossible. I’ve been assured over and over that the real threat comes from the “extreme right”.
In France they’ve never pretended that was the only threat. The threat from the left was never far enough from the surface to enable such pretense.
It was the gay dancer of color
I’m sure of it
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