There are applications that the State prefers to avoid. “A few years ago, I received a Franco-Chinese for a very sensitive position at Bercy,” says a former senior civil servant, who has since moved to the private sector. “I had warned him that his situation would raise difficulties due to the nature of the job he was applying for, and that I could not guarantee that he would be able to pass the security check.” And rightly so: the opinion that comes back to the former senior civil servant’s office is negative. “It was not very surprising,” he continues. “Already, this type of profile was underlined in bright red in the minds of the intelligence services, due to the very close ties that the Chinese government has established with its diaspora – and which have only strengthened.”
The case of this rejected candidate is not an exception. Public officials are regularly subject to administrative investigations when they apply for sensitive positions, particularly because of their dual nationality – or even close ties with certain countries. During a press conference held on June 24, Jordan Bardella explained that he wanted to ban certain “sensitive” jobs for dual nationals. The leader of the National Rally intended to “reserve” positions “in sectors particularly related to security and defense exclusively for French citizens”, by passing “an organic law and a decree”.
An embarrassing announcement
The announcement – and its very vague contours – caused controversy. “Ambassador and binational, I am proud and honored to serve France while being proud of my origins. This would not have been possible under extreme right-wing power,” wrote, on X, Karim Amellal, interministerial delegate to the Mediterranean. “I experience great suffering as the fact that the loyalty of dual nationals can be questioned in this way,” said diplomat Mohamed Bouabdallah in The world.
Controversy relaunched Thursday June 27 by RN deputy Roger Chudeau who, on the set of BFM TV, affirmed that a binational Frenchman should not be appointed minister. Taking the example of Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, former Franco-Moroccan Minister of National Education, he spoke of a “problem of dual loyalty”. “I am a little stunned that our colleague Chudeau can express a personal opinion which is totally contrary to the project of the National Rally, reacted Marine Le Pen this Friday. I renounced the ban on dual nationality several years ago because I realized that this measure was profoundly unfair.” There is no question, however, of abandoning Jordan Bardella’s proposal: “The provision only concerns a few extremely sensitive positions in intelligence. The only thing we wanted to do is give a legal basis to what is already being done “.
The RN has been trying to put out the fire for several days. “In the debate that concerns us, when we talk about access to public sector jobs, there is no problem for dual-national agents,” assured Sébastien Chenu, vice-president of the RN, in an interview with BFMTV. “However, we will make a list of jobs – there are perhaps 50 of them – which are extremely sensitive jobs in the management of intelligence services, etc. in which we consider that, in order not to have pressure, perhaps even emotional, family pressure, you have to be national, French.”
Previously questioned by L’Express, an RN executive specializing in the file estimated the number of positions concerned at around “a hundred”. These would involve functions “extremely sensitive and linked to the vital interests of France”, in sectors such as “IT, nuclear power, defense”, which would concern “a certain number of countries whose list would evolve depending on Of actuality”. The RN envisages that the list of targeted positions “be public” and “set by the General Secretariat of Defense and National Security (SGDSN)”, an interministerial agency placed under the authority of Matignon.
An “insulting” proposal
“This proposal amounts to denying all the work carried out by administrative investigations and accreditation services,” complains Sébastien Soriano, director of the National Institute of Geographic Information. The senior civil servant – who has Peruvian origins – was particularly upset on Linkedin by the National Rally’s proposal. “This is very insulting to the civil servants of the State who scrupulously carry out these checks,” he continues.
In fact, the proposal of the National Rally is not a new thing. “The subject is already being considered,” our former senior official adds. For certain applications for highly sensitive positions, dual nationality – or being a foreigner – is taken into account, among other criteria, our former senior official acknowledges. We must not be naive.” Invited on Europe 1 on June 25, the Minister of the Interior said no different. “There are accreditation interviews: the members of my cabinet, for example, obviously, undergo a accreditation interview where we look at their weaknesses. It could be dual nationality, of course, it could also be money, it could also be a family weakness,” explained Gérald Darmanin.
Limit the risks
Unofficially, the practice does exist. “We already have a certain number of protocols aimed at limiting the risks that dual nationality can induce,” confirms a former intelligence officer who has worked in the private sector for two years. “This does not only concern senior civil servants or officers: many civil servants are subject to security checks, investigations, or clearance procedures on a daily basis.” In clearance investigations – to which individuals, public or private, who need access to classified information are subjected – “it is already known that the criterion of dual nationality is very limiting,” he explains, continuing: “The links that the person maintains with the country will be explored, their relationships scrutinized.”
These very detailed investigations are spread out over time: allow “two weeks to a month” for a “secret” clearance procedure to be successful, and “eight months to a year” for “defense secrets”. “Employers are asked to take these durations into account when recruiting,” continues the analyst. At the RN, we claim to be aware. “But for it to be well defined, a law would have to be put in place,” we insist.
Making automatic, in short, a practice that has so far been left to the discretion of the intelligence services. “Which would remove flexibility,” insists the analyst. Depending on the context, certain nationalities are thus “placed directly in the trash,” because they are considered too sensitive. China is one of them. Russia, too, particularly since the start of the war in Ukraine. Dual-national profiles or those originating “from the Maghreb or the Middle East” have also been subject to increased vigilance after the 2015 attacks.
Automatic surveys
Annie*, a Frenchwoman who acquired dual nationality late in life, explains that she was handicapped in her career for this reason. A regular in the corridors of ministries, approached in 2018 to become a cabinet advisor “on sovereignty issues”, she was ultimately refused her authorization. “I learned at that moment that contrary to what I had been told in the past, my Moroccan passport constituted a difficulty,” she relates. She is not the only one in this situation. “For three years, a Moroccan woman trained special forces for Islamist groups. Her contract was not renewed that year, which caused a problem: people from the Ministry of the Armed Forces were now obliged to go to her conferences public to benefit from its expertise,” says a security source.
“The DGSE has significantly recruited people of North African origin since the beginning of the 2000s. Their expertise has been particularly useful in counter-terrorism, particularly in areas close to the Islamic State,” explains to L’Express. Olivier Mas, former colonel of the DGSE, who notably reacted on the subject in a video on Twitterand is indignant: “This announcement by the RN sends a catastrophic signal to the binational population by implying that they have a dual allegiance”. The former intelligence officer insists on the “automatic” nature of in-depth investigations into agents, which are not limited to their nationality alone. “When I married a Canadian, I signed a document stating that I was out of line, and that the director general would decide on my fate to say whether or not I could continue working for the DGSE”, points out Olivier Mas.
Hole in the racket
No need to have a double passport to be judged a little too close to the interests of a foreign country. In 2019, a confidential report from the SGDSN was also concerned about the increase in the number of marriages between military personnel from Brest’s nuclear submarines and Chinese students. Recently, an employee of a French giant in the defense sector, used to traveling to Asia, was also deprived of his authorization after moving – in France – with a Chinese woman. He was fired by his company. “This may seem harsh. But when an investigation service makes this decision, it is because it is motivated by a set of certain clues. And there is no need to be binational for that,” slips our former intelligence analyst.
This vigilance does not prevent holes in the racket. Last year, a young woman was employed in a department close to Matignon. Born in Russia, she nevertheless displayed a reassuring profile, after nearly twenty years of career in France. But on her LinkedIn, a detail finally caught her attention: before arriving in France, the latter had been for several years at the head of an important department of Moscow town hall. Her case reported, it took six months before she was finally pushed out.
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