Property damage, arson, sabotage: Separatists claim Brittany attacks

An investigation has been opened after Breton nationalists said they were behind several attacks in the region.

The Brittany Liberation Front - Front de Libération de la Bretagne (FLB) - claimed responsibility for six incidents, in a letter sent to numerous regional media outlets.

“We have resumed the fight for the Breton people,” said the FLB in the letter, which also featured a photograph of three of the group’s members wearing balaclavas, posing in front of the traditional Breton flag.

Quimper’s public prosecutor opened an inquiry and said its aim was to assess whether the group’s “claim is opportunistic, or genuinely linked to the events reported.”

The matter has been handed over to the police.

Arson, sabotage and property damage

The letter highlights six incidents of arson, sabotage, or property damage in Brittany between May 2022 and June 2023, all of which the group has retroactively claimed responsibility for.

This includes incidents in:

Caurel, May 18, 2022.

Landunvez, 12 January, 2023

Le Palais, May 3, 2023

Concarneau, May 5, 2023

Morlaix, June 10, 2023

Trébeurden, June 16, 2023

The last of these was an arson attack against a second home in the area.

The group called these “reprisal operations” aimed both against the government – it claims Brittany is in “the grip of the French colonial state” – and non-Bretons in the region.

“Staying in the country has never been so difficult, we won't watch Brittany disappear without a fight,” it added, mentioning the “housing crisis” and high rate of second-home ownership that is often seen as displacing Breton people from their roots.

Back in 2021, the FLB claimed responsibility for fifteen attacks against holiday homes – what it dubbed as “profiteers from the tourist industry” – in the region.

The group’s claims bring fears that violent political struggle could return to the region – the last political act of violence before was in 2000 when an employee at a McDonald’s was killed in Quévert during an attack.

Read also: Eight key takeaways from French study into second homes in Brittany

Who is the FLB?

The FLB is one of a number of nationalist movements in the Brittany region.

Despite being a part of France since the 16th century, some Breton people see their culture and heritage as distinct from the rest of France and desire either greater autonomy or complete independence.

Breton, previously the main language of the region, is still spoken (or understood) by around 200,000 people. It is a Celtic language, originally brought over from Cornwall around the 5th century.

Many nationalists see Brittany as having closer cultural links to the Republic of Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall than the rest of France.

The FLB is not to be confused with other nationalist groups like the Parti National Breton (PNB), who were allegedly behind some second-home graffiti attacks from earlier this year.

After Breton nationalism’s alleged relationship with the Nazi regime during World War Two, the FLB was formed as a left-wing alternative in the struggle for independence.

It was said to be especially close to ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna), or Basque Liberation Party, a far-left group that fought for independence from Spain.

The party takes the line that the French government “colonised” the region, pointing to the decline of Breton speakers via educational and linguistic reforms in the last century.

Although both the far-left and far-right Breton parties have made headlines this year, an independence poll is a long way from being on the political agenda. A poll in 2013 by Bretons magazine found nearly one-in-five people in Brittany wanted independence.

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