Left-wing extremist activist arrested in connection with incident

A few days after the sabotage of the French railway network in the run-up to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, a left-wing extremist activist was arrested in connection with the sabotage attack last Friday (July 26), Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.

This happened at the same time as the first publicly announced arrest by the French government.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin had previously stated that the suspected saboteurs had attacked signal substations and cables at critical points at dawn on Friday, causing traffic chaos just hours before the opening ceremony in Paris.

“We have identified the profiles of several people,” Darmanin told France 2 television, adding that the sabotage bore the signature of far-left groups.

In recent years, France has been the target of attacks by Islamist militants, but security authorities are increasingly concerned about far-left or anarchist militants who typically oppose the state and capitalism.

The then head of France’s domestic intelligence service, Nicolas Lerner, told the French newspaper Le Monde last year that French President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial 2023 pension reform had helped attract new members to far-left groups that were increasingly incorporating ecological issues into their ideologies.

“In recent years, the radical left movements have been known for particularly violent secret actions, including arson, looting and the destruction of property,” said Lerner, who now heads the foreign intelligence service DGSE, in the interview.

In a 2023 report on terrorism trends, European police agency Europol said left-wing and anarchist groups typically attack “critical infrastructure such as repeaters and antennas, government institutions and private companies,” with their “most common modus operandi” being arson and improvised explosive devices.

Train traffic in France has been back up and running since Monday morning after work to repair the damage continued around the clock over the weekend, Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete told RTL Radio.

Vergriete said 800,000 people had faced travel disruptions and said the costs to state rail operator SNCF would be significant.

(With agency contributions)