A new book reveals that French President Emmanuel Macron has a secret hideout outside Paris, where he can seek refuge if protesters storm the Elysee Palace, according to The Telegraph.
The hideout, located on the outskirts of the French capital, was revealed in a book entitled “The New Army of Shadows” (La Nouvelle Armée des Ombres), written by investigative journalists Pierre Gastineau, Antoine Izambar and Franck Renaud.
France has been witnessing violent unrest for weeks, amid reports that intelligence leaders are preparing for the possibility of riots, sabotage, and cyber attacks, and are even making plans to deploy special forces to confront any possible armed uprising in conjunction with the presidential elections scheduled for 2027.
The "yellow vest" protests are behind the preparations
The arrangements for the bunker came, in part, against the backdrop of the “yellow vest” protests in 2018, when Macron was attacked by angry demonstrators during his visit to the city of Le Puy-en-Ville, according to excerpts from the book published by the magazine “L’Express”.
One of the book's authors said in a statement to France Inter radio on Friday: "The government has been shaken."
Following these events, the authorities began studying plans to evacuate the president, recalling memories of the violent riots that France witnessed in February 1934, which then led to the fall of the French government.
Fears of unrest following the 2027 elections
According to the authors, officials fear that the victory of the National Rally, a right-wing populist party led by Marine Le Pen, will spark a “third round” of street protests.
Far-left activists, youth from the suburbs, and groups from rural areas who refuse to recognize the election results may participate in these protests.
On the other hand, the victory of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of the far-left “France Proud” party, which current opinion polls indicate is likely to reach a runoff in the presidential elections, may lead to the emergence of a state of “passive resistance” within the ranks of the police.
The book's authors, citing high-ranking sources, reported that Patrice Faure, the Paris police chief, held frequent meetings to prepare for a possible rebellion.
Security preparations to confront electronic attacks
In a related context, the General Directorate of External Security, the French foreign intelligence service, conducted a simulation of election interference scenarios.
The police in the French capital were also trained to work throughout the entire day without using encrypted smartphones, in anticipation of the country being exposed to a large-scale electronic attack that could lead to the paralysis of systems.
A senior intelligence official had warned the book's authors since April that France was heading toward widespread unrest, pointing to rising fuel prices and escalating popular anger that began with the "yellow vest" protests.
However, intelligence officials greatly underestimated their estimates of the numbers of participants in the October 17 demonstrations, as they expected between 60,000 and 150,000 demonstrators to come out, while the actual number of participants exceeded 500,000 people.
The British Communications Regulatory Authority (Ofcom) said on Friday that the Snapchat platform has begun automatically disabling the “Find Friends” feature for child users in Britain, in a step that the authority described as important to reduce the risks of online grooming.
This feature helps users find and add new friends.
The authority stated that this change will make it difficult for strangers to contact children on the platform, which it considers one of the largest and most popular electronic services among children in Britain, according to Reuters.
The authority said in May that 32 percent of children between the ages of 8 and 12 in Britain use Snapchat, even though the minimum age allowed on the platform is 13 years.
Oliver Griffiths, director of the authority's online safety group, said that this change "should have happened a long time ago," and that the authority will monitor Snapchat's implementation of this new protection during this month.
The platform committed to making this change in May, and recently informed the authority that effective age verification procedures for under-18s would come into effect by the end of the year.
A Snapchat spokesperson said that the platform “will continue to strengthen protection measures as risks evolve, and will work constructively with the authority, safety experts, families, and youth, to help ensure that Snapchat remains a safe place for communication and self-expression.”
There have long been concerns about grooming on social media.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children conducted an analysis of British police data in 2025, and it was found that 40 percent of recorded crimes involving sexual contact with a child and the platform used was identified occurred on Snapchat.
The authority pressured major technology companies to take stronger anti-solicitation measures. The authority explained that electronic luring can have devastating consequences for children that last a lifetime.
The authority again issued a warning to other technology companies that do not address the risks of solicitation, saying that these companies risk fines of up to 10 percent of their total global revenues.
