La nuit tombée sur nos âmes - Frédéric Paulin

Frédéric Paulin is a French writer of romans noirs, a different kind of policier from the more common police-detective crime thriller, one more involved in current affairs and geopolitics. I'm not familiar with this genre, the only other one I can think of that I've read in French is Jean-Patrick Manchette whose works date back to the 1970s and the world has moved on since then ...and not necessarily for the better. I'm not aware of many notable authors writing in this genre in English. The closest I can think of - and he is a writer I greatly admire for his knowledge and insights into the human within state affairs - is Gerald Seymour. 

La nuit tombée sur nos âmes (literally 'The Fallen Night on Our Souls' or perhaps 'Dark Night of the Soul'?) deals with the events surrounding the protests and riots at the G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001, a blend of real life political figures on the fringes and fictional characters involved in the central conflict between the Italian security forces and far left activist groups. Known for their political activism, it probably not surprising that it's a French author tackling this subject.

The expectation for the kind of protest and violence is already high due to the events that took place at the EU summit in Gothenburg in June 2001 where the Swedish riot-police opened fire on protestors, resulting in the death of one protester. With a G8 summit taking place in Genoa in July, the stage has been set with various anti-globalisation groups preparing to take the battle to Italy. The Italian authorities however under the Berlusconi government are taking serious measures to protect the summit, drafting in a huge number of police and establishing a cordon around the meeting venue. Tensions are high to say the least, but the measures employed do nothing to prevent the horror of what happens.

That's the real-life historical background to the G8 summit, the author using fictional characters - no doubt based on real witness accounts - to get closer to what takes place from inside and around the summit from the perspective of the Italian police, a French ministerial advisor, journalists and protestors and try to understand how it all goes terribly wrong.

Activist Chrétien Wagenstein intends to join the protests again with Nathalie Deroin, a young woman he saved from almost getting killed in in Gothenburg, but the gaps in their ideologies and beliefs are already starting to create fractures in their relationship. Also travelling to attend the summit is Laurent Lamar working for President Chirac in charge of communications as advisor, speech writer and all-round organiser. It's an important period for Chirac, who is under pressure domestically and pushing towards international affairs and diplomacy, seeking to establish a new role for himself in smoothing the path to globalisation. 

There is clearly a right-wing agenda on the table, certainly as far as dismissing the concerns of the protestors, but it leans closer towards fascism in Berlusconi's government in Italy. Not quite far enough for Franco de Carli, security chief for Berlusconi, who in charge of securing the event. An avowed fascist, his approach is a little more heavy-handed than the French advisor is used to, not to say underhanded, using propaganda and infiltration, not just preparing the police forces for violent confrontations, but giving them free rein to provoke the protestors so that they can come down hard on them.

The French police and anti-terrorist units specialising in surveillance of far left activists are however not beyond employing similar tactics. Two undercover DGSE foreign intelligence agents have been tasked with blending in with the protest groups and they have some assistance in this from one of the aforementioned, Wag, who has been providing information to the police. Also joining the young activist couple to get an inside story on the protests is Génovéfa Gicquep, a journalist specialising in geopolitics who, accompanied by a photographer, is about to have her eyes open to treachery on all sides in the days to come. 

The Italian security and border forces have locked down the centre of Genoa and prevented 700 known "undesirables" from even entering Italy, but 500,000 are still expected to be Genoa between the 19th - 22nd July 2001 when the summit takes place, including a large number of black bloc anarchists. Accordingly between 15,000 and 25,000 have been police mobilised, with a red zone in operation around summit. They authorities and protestors expect the worst and the worst is what happens. Although one protestor is killed during the violence that inevitably erupts, and the climax to the operations takes place during the notorious brutal police assault on protestors spending the night at the Diaz school, permitted to show no mercy and given immunity from any violent action they deem necessary. "La force est de leur côté, la légitimité suits et les chefs s'assureront de la légalité."

There is nothing particularly new or surprising in what Frédéric Paulin reveals about the authorities use of undercover operatives, infiltration, false flag operations and misinformation, as well as directing propaganda in the press. These are well-documented activities carried out by so-called democratic states, and particularly in those with fascist inclinations. La nuit tombée sur nos âmes however is not intended to be documentary or reportage however, but a fictional situation built around a significant event. It's aim is rather to see and understand the people 'behind the scenes', both on the security side and on the protestors, even if they are fictional constructs, rather than as an anonymous mass as they are presented in news reports where you get little of the political or ideological sense behind their actions.

If the purpose of the account is to provide some human insight into how such abuses of authority can take place, Paulin succeeds, creating characters with conflicting ideals and ideas on the side of the state and on the side of the protestors, showing the resultant chaos and problems that arise out of it. It's a powerful testimony to the abuse of power, a warning of what happens when a state turns towards authoritarianism, opening the doors to fascism and giving free rein to its military forces to exercise violence against its own people. If the purpose were to highlight this as a way to prevent such things happening again, well, considering the continued abuse of power and rise of far-right groups in Europe, I'm afraid that is beyond the power of any single author or reader, but it's reason enough to try to ensure that the events of July 2001 and their implications are not forgotten.

Reading notes: La nuit tombée sur nos âmes by Frédéric Paulin was first published in France in 2021 by Editions Agullo. I read a 2023 pocket paperback edition published in the Folio Policier collection. Paulin's politically engaged thrillers have won numerous literary awards in France, particularly for his Trilogie Benlazar comprising of  La guerre est une ruse, Prémices de la chute and La fabrique de la terreur. Needless to say that it doesn't look like any of his books appear in English translation.