- guardian.co.uk, Sunday June 10 2001 01.59 BST
The names of 155 men and women - including politicians, writers and film-makers - appear alongside terrorists on a list from a special undercover inquiry into the extreme Left carried out last year by the Renseignements Generaux - the Special Branch - on the orders of the former Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevenement.
Among them are film directors Bertrand Tavernier and Patrice Chéreau, rural activist Jose Bové, novelist Didier Daeninckx, four MEPs - including the Sixties student activist Daniel Cohn-Bendit - a bishop, Jacques Gaillot, university professors, journalists and leaders of anti-racist organisations. All are frequently seen on peaceful demonstrations and television debates.
Listed with them are suspected Basque Eta and Corsican terrorists as well as two women, Florence Rey and Nathalie Ménigon, who were involved in murders linked to the extreme Left.
The police say the dossiers are a precaution against the potential disruption of international meetings such as next month's G7 summit in Italy. 'We only act in the interests of containing eventual public order offences,' a spokesman said.
The disclosures follow recent revelations that the Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, was an active Trotskyist before joining the Socialist Party in 1971 - an allegation he confirmed last week after several denials. The authorities fear a sudden rise in the voting power of established Trotskyist parties threatens to split the Left in next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Throughout the report, leaked by a police source, the RG insists that Trotskyist movements have infiltrated mainstream parties. One of the most specific allegations is aimed at the Parti des Travailleurs, formerly the International Communists, which it says introduced 'moles' into the Socialist Party.
A senior member of the Parti des Travailleurs, Pierre Boussel, is identified as 'Lambert', Jospin's sponsor inside the movement, where he was known as Comrade Michel.
Jospin's long political rivalry with Chevenement has posed questions as to why the Special Branch has defied legal safeguards on civil rights. The 'mole' theory reflects accusations by Jospin's critics that he was told to join the Socialists.
The former Interior Minister, who runs his own marginal party, is in the political wilderness after he was forced to resign because of a clash with the Prime Minister over Corsican autonomy.
The report says: 'What the extreme Left has lost in ideological virulence and militant potential could have been compensated by influence [elsewhere].' It implies that post-1968 groups have secretly established links inside a wide spectrum of political, trade union and human rights movements.
The state security argument was rejected by Tavernier, whose fault, says the RG, is frequently signing human rights petitions.
'The existence of these police dossiers is extraordinary, shocking and laughable,' he said. 'It reminds me of McCarthyism. I am not a member of any organisation and never have been but I support movements fighting for better lodging for the poor or workers' rights.'
France's civil liberties watchdog, the CNIL, is to check if the surveillance is legal, while speculation grows as to why the government fears the green party, Les Verts, which is part of its own coalition, and two leading Trotskyist movements, Lutte Ouvrière and LCR.
Les Verts' prospective presidential candidate, Alain Lipietz, is on the list along with four-times presidential candidate Arlette Laguiller and Alain Krivine, whose Trotskyist parties could reap eight per cent of the vote because of disillusionment with the Socialists.
