Poll: French Public Overwhelmingly Supports Tougher Anti-Terrorism Measures

The Ifop-Fiducial institute conducted this poll for Cnews and Sud Radio during the period from November 3 to 5, 2020, on a sample of 2,030 people. Thus, nine out of ten French people (89%) are in favor of the revocation of nationality for people with dual nationality who have committed offenses. They also favor the expulsion of people on the "S" watchlist residing in France or the creation of a new offense called "endangerment by the publication of personal data".

Same position for the "French Guantanamo", demanded by the LR deputy Eric Ciotti. This involves placing people on the "S" watchlist in preventive detention before they commit a crime. "There was a terrible emotion after the beheading of Samuel Paty and the attack on the basilica of Nice, and therefore a hardening of public opinion," analyzes Frédéric Dabi, deputy director of the Ifop institute, on Cnews.

New technologies are also mentioned in the fight against terrorism: the accountability of social networks for the messages disseminated on their platforms (85%), the use of facial recognition for domestic security purposes (78%) or the removal of anonymity for social network users (78%).

"There is the idea that this terrorism problem has existed for years, and that it has not been resolved. There is a distrust of the government. So we are calling for shock measures that would settle issues that are already in the public debate," says Mr. Dabi. For the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, there is no need "to change the Constitution" to better fight against terrorism. But the majority of respondents (69%) express their willingness to reform the judicial system and provide for exceptional measures that derogate from legal and constitutional principles.

The most favorable are the