To fight against drug trafficking, Bruno Retailleau intends to track offenders to their smartphone by intervening directly on encrypted messaging. A proposal that caused anger, from RN to LFI.
This Monday, March 17, the bill to fight against drug trafficking arrives at the National Assembly. This is a priority file for the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau. The latter will be judged on his ability to convince, from socialist deputies to parliamentarians from the national rally. A rejection of the text could precipitate his departure from the government as he hinted. Among the hot spots, article 8ter. It could allow French intelligence services to have access to encrypted messaging to track down drug traffickers so as to obtain their content in the surveys.
Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal .. so many channels used by offenders to communicate, and clues passing under the radars of the investigators. In Law Commission, the Beauvau tenanthad highlighted the need for new special techniques for investigations, to “fight on equal arms” with organized crime. A postulate and a system of “cookie” which are not unanimous in the hemicycle, far from it.
“The first of hackers would have access to our communication”
For the RN deputy of Hérault Aurélien Lopez-Liguori, it is an “unacceptable attack on our private life and the security of our communications”, he castigated on X on March 4. “The deciphering keys are at the level of user terminals. The key is not centralized somewhere within the platform (…) It would then be necessary to set up steep doors for all communications, which would largely go beyond the fight against narcotrafic. The first of hackers would have access to our communications,” he continued.
It is true that such a method raises questions concerning the public freedoms of citizens. This processis also feared by cybersecurity experts. For its part, the PS is positioned on the same line on the RN on the question: “We must improve our means of combating drug trafficking, but not by sacrificing our public freedoms”, launched Paul Christophle, elected PS of Drôme, on March 5, 2025 on the social network X.“What is expected of the left is not to give in to the sirens of the right. It amazes me that a socialist can sign a text like that,” said the rebellious deputy Ugo Bernalicis, specialist in security issues, after the words of Olivier Faure, rather favorable to the bill defended by the Minister of the Interior and against the “laxity” of the left. This text also created confusion even in the presidential majority. The Minister of Digital, Clara Chappaz, issues reservations on a measure which “would not only penalize criminals” but “would also expose our citizens, our companies and our infrastructures to the cyber attacks”.
According toThe association La Quadrature du Net, “such a measure is extremely dangerous […] This would weaken the level of protection of all communications and threaten the confidentiality of all our exchanges “, we can read in the columns of Ouest-France. Bruno Retailleau hopes for him, a” founding law “in the face of the” existential threat “that represents narcotrafic today on” our institutions “, he declared to the Parisian. French policy, and the first debates in the law committee in early March, the vote promises to be extremely undecided in the lower chamber of the Parliament.