Weekly political magazine Le Point reported that French security services agents have been tracking the Yellow Vest protestors and listening in on their phone conversations. Similar claims have been made by a French weekly, Le Canard Enchaîné.
Le Point reported that French domestic intelligence services – the Intelligence Directorate of the Prefecture of Police of Paris (DRPP) – were tracking 50 activists in Paris and 100 in other parts of the country.
The magazine highlighted that the number of requests from the DRPP to the National Intelligence Control Commission (CNCTR) – an intelligence watchdog that monitors intelligence gathering techniques – have “multiplied”.
An investigation was also launched in Toulouse after police officers were caught on tape threatening that they wanted to “shoot” Yellow Vest protesters who resist.
The Yellow Vests’ weekly Saturday protests have now entered their thirteenth week, with protestors continuing to demand that President Emmanuel Macron introduce Citizen-Initiated Referendums (RIC) that would allow Swiss-style referenda to make laws, kick out politicians or even amend the French constitution.
The notion of the RIC remains on the agenda with a recent poll showing 77 percent of French backing the policy to propose laws, 73 percent for an RIC to veto proposed laws from parliament, and 68 percent for RICs to remove politicians from office.
The level of police violence against protestors has increased. Last weekend, a Yellow Vest protester was again seriously injured, primarily by police use of flash-ball ammunition. Several have already lost eyes and hands.