Prefect Nicolas Lerner, who had been the head of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) for five years, was appointed this Wednesday, December 20, head of the DGSE, foreign intelligence. This is what the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced this Wednesday on X. This is the first time that the head of a domestic intelligence service has taken charge of the country’s foreign intelligence.
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Nicolas Lerner was already the youngest director of the DGSI, he is now, at 45 years old, the youngest director appointed to head the DGSE. Also a first: the appointment as head of the DGSI of Céline Berthon, current number two in the General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN). Aged 47, this woman with a meteoric rise is the first to take the reins of internal security.
Enarque from the same promotion as Emmanuel Macron with whom he is close, Nicolas Lerner is unanimously hailed as a “ hard worker “. This senior official spent most of his career within the Ministry of the Interior, mainly on security issues.
The DGSI, leader in the fight against terrorism
Assigned to the general secretariat of Place Beauvau in 2004 upon leaving the ENA, he was director of the office of the prefect of Hérault from 2006 to 2008. He then worked in the office of the prefect of police of Paris, before being appointed in 2014 sub-prefect of Béziers. Coordinator for security in Corsica from 2015 to 2017, in 2018 he became deputy director of the Minister of the Interior Gérard Collomb.
For five years at the head of the DGSI, he has managed to improve relations which were often tense between external and internal intelligence. His appointment therefore illustrates the now close links between the two French intelligence bodies.
And at the request of President Macron, he made the DGSI the undisputed leader in the fight against terrorism. Since the attacks of 2015 and in a context of still-present terrorist threat, the resources of the DGSI have been increased during its mandate. By the end of 2023, the department will include a total of 5,000 agents, compared to 4,200 at the end of 2018.
The implementation of a vast reform of the DGSE
Boulevard Mortier, he will benefit from a significant increase in the DGSE budget obtained by his predecessor Bernard Emié, to implement a vast reform and the move of the service to Fort Vincennes.
But Nicolas Lerner also takes the head of a house which in recent months has accumulated criticism, in particular for not having seen the invasion of Ukraine coming, and not having anticipated the successive coups d’état in Mali, in Burkina Faso and in Niger.
(and with AFP)