Extreme left, drug criminals or a foreign power: who is behind the attacks on French prisons?

The French prison system is in a state of shock. Since ten days, prisons and prison staff throughout France are the target of attacks. It started on Sunday 13 April with seven vehicles that caught fire near a training institute for prison staff in Agen, in the southwest. Later that night, hundreds of kilometers away, the car of a jailer was set on fire.

At least 65 incidents throughout the country followed: dozens of cars of prison staff were set on fire or otherwise damaged. Sunday night was shot at homes where prison guards would live in the Isère, a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Houses were also pelted with Molotov cocktails and front doors set on fire. The last attacks date from Monday night: then cars were destroyed at a prison in the Calvados. The car of a jailer in the Oise, a department in the Hauts-De-France region, also had to suffer. Attacks have also been thwarted: that’s how it is Monday night Three people with jerry cans petrol arrested near the prison of Varces, near Lyon. There have been no injuries so far.

On Wednesday, a trio ministers traveled to the prison in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in the ISère to express support to the prison staff: Prime Minister François Bayrou, Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin and Minister of the Interior Bruno Retaillaard-especially the last two present themselves. « We are here because they have come to intimidate you, » Bayrou told about sixty security guards. « The fact that a coordinated action takes place in various prisons shows that there are people who (…) feel supreme. »