Secretary of State Sonia Backès, in charge of Citizenship, worries on France Inter Thursday about sectarian excesses linked to health, citing as an example the raw food movement, which can endanger the lives of their followers.
Reports for sectarian aberrations are subject to “significant quantitative increase” but that’s only “the tip of the iceberg”says Sonia Backès, Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship, invited Thursday, November 3 on France Inter.
>> Sectarian abuses: referrals to Miviludes reach a new record
The day after the publication of the report of the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes), which reports 4,020 reports in 2021 (+33.6% compared to 2020), Sonia Backès regrets that “everything is not reported”. “A lot of things go under the radar and we don’t know exactly how many people are really affected” by sectarian aberrations, she continues. The last known figure now dates from “a few years” and reports on “500,000 people affected”according to the Secretary of State.
Sonia Backès said she was particularly worried about the “health-related excesses”. “We are talking about people who call themselves naturopaths and who sell alternative treatments to traditional and verified treatments.“, she explains, giving as an example “the raw food movement”represented in particular by YouTuber Thierry Casasnovas, who alone is the subject of 54 reports.
“These are people who say: stop radiotherapy, chemotherapy, when you have cancer, and drink vegetable juices, you will be cured.”
Sonia Backesat France Inter
“Difficulty arises when there is mental control and endangerment”she continues, deploring also the financial consequences linked to these excesses. “Behind, there is an incentive to buy the device that makes vegetable juice, then the video of these 2.0 gurus ends up paying”, specifies Sonia Backès, whose mother belonged to the sect of the Church of Scientology. “I know how it goes, I know how you get in there, I know how they keep people in check and I know how difficult it is to get out of it,” she explains.
In this context, “Assises of sectarian aberrations and conspiracy” will be organized “early 2023” around the actors in the fight against these phenomena. The goal, specifies Sonia Backès, is to achieve “an inventory” and achieve”to a very clear action plan”. Among the avenues being considered, the Secretary of State says she wants to simplify reporting procedures, which currently consist of “fill out a form on the Miviludes website”.
“Is that enough? I don’t think so”she adds. “We need greater proximity, to raise awareness among the people around us, the gendarmes, the local services to report more easily”, indicates Sonia Backès, who does not rule out changing the legislative arsenal around sectarian aberrations.