In the name of protecting the public during the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in Paris from July 26 to September 8, 2024, the French Ministry of Interior implemented a security arsenal unprecedented in contemporary France. This repressive wave that followed years of expanding counterterrorism legislation and integrating emergency law provisions into ordinary aalaw, culminated in a series of explicitly freedom-curtailing measures that were supposed to prevent any threat to people and property. In practice, these measures form a continuum with ongoing campaigns against radicalization and “Islamist separatism”.
Starting in April 2024, the Ministry of Interior issued a series of “Individual Measures of Administrative Control and Surveillance” (MICAS). These entail various forms of deprivation of liberty, including the house arrest of individuals deemed suspect, alongside thousands of administrative investigations and home visits. People affected include S-filed individuals (“fichés S”), far-right or far-left activists, individuals with precarious administrative status, or those simply working in so-called sensitive sectors. Although the range of those impacted by MICAS is broad, it fails to hide the reality of a policy primarily targeting Muslim citizens, who form the bulk of the affected victims. In many cases, the justifications offered are inconsistent or dubious and sometimes outright fanciful.
