The Next President of France will be...

Some controversial project initiated by the French government to do something against the radicalisation among their Muslim population. The article describes the Project as being something like a boot camp to tackle radicalisation. The locals are worried and the FN has joined their protests against it.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37454697

Inside France's 'boot camp' for wavering radicals

Under pressure to tackle home-grown jihadism, the French government is opening a string of rehabilitation centres to combat extremism - and the first one is already proving controversial.
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These villagers are outraged that a small chateau on their doorstep is about to become France's first Centre for Prevention, Integration and Citizenship — or what some call a de-radicalisation boot camp.
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I appears to me that the villagers already see those potential camp residents already as some sort of criminals, whether convicted or not. But in due course, the article gives a bit more of explanation on the very subject that makes the locals there so outraged.

Despite official assurances that the first residents of the centre would come "voluntarily" and be restricted to those who had "never been convicted for acts linked to radicalisation", Michel, who heads the local protest group, is unconvinced.

Such assurances doesn´t work to calm down the mood of the locals, they say:

"We live with fear in our stomachs," he says, "especially after Nice."

He adds that the lorry driver responsible for mowing down 90 people on Bastille Day as they watched a firework show on the French Riviera had no criminal record.

Fears might rather increase by the figures given by the French PM regarding the numbers of radicalised people they have under surveilance.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said nearly 15,000 people in France were on the radar of police and intelligence services because they are suspected of being radicalised, while 1,350 are under investigation - 293 because of alleged links with a terrorism network.

This one is supposed to be the first of a total of 13 centres to be opened.

From now until the end of 2017 the state plans to open 13 residential rehabilitation centres - one in each region of France - at a reported cost of £40m. They will accommodate different kinds of people - some may be for hardened radicals who have recently come back from Syria or been released from prison.

But the first one to open is more of a prevention centre - "de-radicalisation light".

Seems that the locals are already looking through this Project of the French govt:

"Francois Hollande is desperate to be seen to be doing something to fight extremism," she says. "But he'll lose anyway," Michel interjects. Who'll win, I ask. I'll tell you after another glass of wine, he replies.

The FN is trying to exploit the annoyance of the locals:

At the top of the drive leading to the chateau, Michel's group are holding angry banners and they are joined by Veronique Pean, a regional councillor from the Front National. She hands me a press release which denounces the government's incompetence in the face of Islamist terror.

Opinions on the purpose and success of the project differ considerably. The official statement by the so called "anti-extremism tsar" Muriel Domenach is trying to put it into a meaning of "taking care".

The centre, we're told, is not in the business of de-radicalisation but re-engagement and re-integration. The aim is to support young people who are cut off from their families and friends and "rescue them before they fall off the edge into radicalism", as Domenach puts it.

But why would somebody on the path of radicalisation volunteer to come to a place like this? "It's complicated," says Domenach. "With young people on the brink there's often a tug of war between a thirst for life and a fascination with death."

The Project was accompanied and supported in its outset by a sociologist.

Gerald Bronner, a Grenoble sociologist, who has helped design the programme, says "telling people they are wrong never works. Instead we need to try and open their minds and strengthen their intellectual immunity to extremist ideology.

"But that can't be imposed - they have to do that for themselves."

Sure, he´s right in his last line but somehow, they´ll have to be brought to start with doing that for themselves. Otherwise nothing will change.

The centre has room for 30 recruits but it's unclear how many have so far signed up. ... Residents will have to get up at 06:45 each morning, go to classes and wear uniforms or "certain outfits", as the director puts it. ... They'll study French history, religion and philosophy. Once a week they'll salute the French flag and sing La Marseillaise. ... Residents will be able to do sport, capoeira, slam poetry and horse therapy. ... religious observance, prayers and the wearing of the veil could take place during free time in the residents' bedrooms. ... What about their use of laptops and mobile phones while they're here? "Computers will be strictly pedagogical and anyway," smirks one interior ministry official, "the signal here is terrible." ...

Doesn´t looks like a prison to me, but some restrictions and guidance is at the core of the whole thing. I don´t know why the journalist is bothered with getting out of bed at 6:45 in the morning. Not less People going to work have to get up even earlier.

And what about the concerns of local people? They're "irrational," says the mayor of Beaumont en Veron, adding that 18 cameras and other security measures are in place - although there are no guard dogs. "There's no such thing as zero risk but we must help these young people somehow," he says.

Domenach agrees. "The most dangerous and irresponsible action," she concludes, "would be to do nothing."

Right, the worst thing would be to do nothing and I wonder if this project won´t set up a pattern for handling another problem, just tailored for it, which is the Migrant problem in France.

Today, the FN is joining the protests of the locals and branding the project as the desperate effort by Hollande to show the public that he´s about to tackle the problem. One can be rather sure that if the FN were in power, they´d go beyond the things which are described in that article.

There is no mention of any sort of military drill in that centre and so, the talk about "boot camp" is more a bit exaggerated and speaks of the usual liberal approach on illiberal people. To find the balance is the major thing but to appear to weak in dealing with radicals will only make the whole project doomed to fail.