Ludovic MARIN/AFP and S. Sarfati /DGPN-Sicop
Nicolas Lerner was appointed Director General of the Foreign Intelligence Service this Wednesday, December 20th. Céline Berthon succeeds him as head of the internal secret service.
Secret Service – This is the first time that a domestic intelligence chief has taken over the leadership of foreign intelligence. Prefect Nicolas Lerner, Director General of Internal Intelligence, was appointed this Wednesday, December 20, in the Council of Ministers, head of French spies at the DGSE, the Minister of the Armed Forces announced on X.
“I wish Nicolas Lerner all the best as he continues to protect France in the shadows,” wrote Sébastien Lecornu after thanking Bernard Émié, who led the DGSE for six years.
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Nicolas Lerner had the same promotion as Emmanuel Macron – to whom he is close – and was appointed head of internal security in October 2018. The 45-year-old senior civil servant is unanimously hailed as a “hard worker” and has done everything in his career at the Home Office, mostly on security issues.
Having helped – together with Bernard Émié – to improve the sometimes stormy relations between external and internal intelligence services, Nicolas Lerner comes to the head of a department whose reputation has been tarnished by a series of failures, in particular in failing to stop the invasion of Russia has seen Ukraine is coming. The successive coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger were also not foreseen.
Céline Berthon is promoted to DGSI
On the DGSI side, Céline Berthon succeeds Nicolas Lerner. This is again a first as she is the first woman in history to lead internal intelligence. “As a police officer with a remarkable career,” she will “have to lead one of the most sensitive administrations in our country,” responsible for the fight against terrorism and counterintelligence, the interior minister wrote on Twitter.
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A former student of the National Police Academy, the senior officer has been number two in the National Police since May last year. She worked for the DGSI from 2018 to 2020.
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