"I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible"

This sentence is not taken from a political science textbook on authoritarian regimes. It was written by Peter Thiel, in an essay published in 2009 in the libertarian journal Cato Unbound^[1]. Sixteen years later, its author was welcomed in Paris, within one of the most prestigious institutions of the French Republic.

On January 26, 2026, Peter Thiel spoke behind closed doors at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences^[2], invited by the philosophy section. The session, kept secret until the last moment, was officially about "technology and the future of the West." According to testimonies gathered, the billionaire reportedly developed an eschatological vision mixing references to the Antichrist, criticism of democratic "decadence," and praise for technological disruption as an instrument of power.

Outside, about a hundred protesters brandished a banner reading "Palantir-toi" (a French pun meaning "Get out, Palantir") — a sardonic wordplay referring to the mass surveillance company co-founded by Thiel. The Association of Philosophy Teachers in Public Education (APPEP) had published a statement denouncing this invitation, recalling the openly anti-democratic positions of the businessman.

But who is Peter Thiel really? And why should his presence in Paris alert us to the state of our democracy?

Portrait of an Architect of Technofascism

Peter Thiel, 58, is not just another Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Co-founder of PayPal alongside Elon Musk, first outside investor in Facebook (where he sat on the board until 2022), he is above all the creator of Palantir Technologies^[3] — a company whose name, borrowed from the seeing-stones in The Lord of the Rings, perfectly summarizes its ambition: to see everything, know everything, control everything.

In his 2009 essay, Thiel did not merely express doubts about democracy. He explicitly pointed out what he considered the causes of its dysfunction:

"Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of 'capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron."^[4]

Women's right to vote as an obstacle to progress. Welfare as a hindrance to freedom. This gives a measure of the scope of the political project.

But Thiel does not merely theorize. He acts. In 2016, he funded Donald Trump's campaign and became one of his advisors. In 2022, he invested $15 million in J.D. Vance's Senate campaign — now Vice President of the United States^[5]. He maintains close ties with Curtis Yarvin, a neoreactionary ideologue who advocates for the abolition of the American Constitution in favor of "techno-authoritarian city-states" run by all-powerful CEOs^[6].

Palantir: The Machine for Surveillance and Deportation

Palantir Technologies, co-founded by Thiel in 2003 with financial support from In-Q-Tel — the CIA's investment fund^[7] — develops massive data analysis software used by intelligence services and law enforcement agencies around the world.

In the United States, Palantir has become the central tool of the Trump administration's immigration policy. In April 2025, ICE^[8] signed a $30 million contract with the company to develop "ImmigrationOS" — an artificial intelligence platform designed to "identify, track, and deport" immigrants^[9].

The system aggregates data from multiple government sources: tax files, Social Security databases, license plate records, air travel histories. It allows agents to approve raids, generate legal documents, and organize deportation flights — all from a single interface^[10].

Thirteen former Palantir employees signed an open letter in May 2025, titled "The Scouring of the Shire" (a reference to The Lord of the Rings), denouncing the dismantling of the company's ethical safeguards^[11]:

"Companies are bowing to the Trump administration, suppressing dissent, and aligning with its xenophobic, sexist, and oligarchic agenda."

In France, the DGSI^[12] has been using Palantir tools since 2016, initially deployed urgently after the November 13, 2015 attacks. In December 2025, the contract was renewed for three more years^[13]. The software, called OTDH (Heterogeneous Data Processing Tool), constitutes according to experts "the backbone" of French domestic intelligence's analytical capabilities.

The promise of a "sovereign" French tool to replace Palantir, repeated since 2018 by successive governments, remains unfulfilled. As the specialized media OpexNews analyzes: "Sovereignty is not a slogan, it's an industrial trajectory, long, costly, and often ungrateful. As long as it remains presented as a 'transition' without a clear timeline, the temporary will continue to be very permanent."^[14]

The French Architects of Conquest: Media, Money, and Politics

If Peter Thiel embodies the American side of technofascism, France has its own hegemony builders. Three forces are converging today to reshape the French political landscape: a media empire, a machine for financing the radical right, and a far-right party in the process of normalization.

The Bolloré Empire: Manufacturing Consent

Vincent Bolloré^[15], France's 11th richest person, has methodically built a media empire in service of an ultraconservative vision. CNews, Europe 1, the Journal du Dimanche, Canal+: these media outlets daily broadcast a flow of information oriented toward the obsessions of the far right — immigration, insecurity, "wokism," Islam.

The figures documented by Reporters Without Borders in November 2025 are eloquent: on CNews, during prime time (7am-10am and 6pm-9pm), the far right accounts for 40.6% of exposure time compared to 15.4% for the left. At night, the ratio reverses — the left rises to 60.1% — allowing the channel to present seemingly balanced overall statistics^[17]. RSF formally filed a complaint with Arcom^[16] in January 2026 with a 112-page dossier documenting these "flagrant breaches of pluralism"^[18].

The effectiveness of this machine is measurable: CNews became France's top news channel in audience share in May 2024. What was unspeakable ten years ago — calling unaccompanied minors "thieves, rapists, and murderers," as Éric Zemmour did on air in 2021 — is now normalized, even though that statement cost the channel a €200,000 fine^[20].

In July 2025, Arcom refused to renew the frequency of C8, another channel in the group, after repeated sanctions related to Cyril Hanouna's show. But CNews, despite complaints and a Council of State ruling in February 2024^[19], keeps its frequency. The message is clear: you can transform a news channel into a propaganda organ without losing your broadcasting rights.

The Pericles Project: 150 Million for Victory

In the media shadows, another billionaire is funding the conquest of power. Pierre-Édouard Stérin^[21], 52, founder of Smartbox, France's 81st richest person and a tax exile in Belgium since 2012, revealed the extent of his ambitions in 2024.

The "Pericles Project" — an acronym for "Patriotes Enracinés Résistants Identitaires Chrétiens Libéraux Européens Souverainistes" (Rooted Patriot Resistant Identitarian Christian Liberal European Sovereignists)^[22] — plans €150 million over ten years to "enable ideological, electoral, and political victory" for declared values: the family as "the foundation of society," the "predominant place of European and Christian civilization," and the fight against "socialism, wokism, Islamism, and immigration."

The documents revealed by L'Humanité in July 2024 detail a total strategy: creating the "first right-wing think tank in France," producing media "barometers" on "Islam and insecurity," training elected officials, and massive support for the RN with the goal of "300 cities to win" in the 2026 municipal elections^[23]. Stérin's right-hand man, François Durvye, openly presents himself as Marine Le Pen's economic advisor^[24].

But Pericles is only the visible part. The "Common Good Fund" of Stérin has irrigated for years a network of traditionalist Catholic associations: La Maison de Marthe et Marie, which under the guise of helping pregnant women conducts anti-abortion work^[25]; the Chants de France app, co-founded by a former GUD member^[26] whose repertoire included songs from the Third Reich; the Catholic University of the West, discreetly funded since 2023^[27]. On December 2, 2025, Stérin finalized the acquisition of Valeurs actuelles^[28], completing his entry into the media arena.

The RN: From Conviction to Normalization

These investments converge toward one objective: bringing the National Rally to power. And this, despite — or thanks to — its judicial conviction.

On March 31, 2025, Marine Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison — two of them to be served — and five years of ineligibility with immediate enforcement for embezzlement of public funds^[29]. For more than ten years (2004-2016), the party had people paid by the European Parliament who were actually working for its French activities. Damage: €2.9 million. The court president justified the immediate enforcement by "the gravity of the facts, their duration, the amounts embezzled, and the objectively characterized risk of recidivism"^[30].

International reactions revealed the solidarities at play: Trump comparing the conviction to "his own legal troubles," Orbán tweeting "I am Marine!", the Kremlin denouncing "a violation of democratic norms," Bolsonaro — himself ineligible — encouraging Le Pen to "overcome this persecution"^[31].

The appeal trial opened on January 13, 2026. A decision is expected in summer — potentially in time for 2027 if the conviction is overturned. Meanwhile, polls give Marine Le Pen between 34% and 37% in the first round. Jordan Bardella calls for "popular mobilization" against what he calls an "attack on democracy" — the irony of a party convicted of embezzling European funds positioning itself as a democratic defender seems to escape him.

The Convergence

These three forces — media, financial, political — do not necessarily share the same ends. Bolloré defends a nostalgic Catholic conservatism. Stérin wants to "serve Christ and France." The RN pursues its quest for power. But their actions feed each other: Bolloré's media normalize the ideas that Stérin finances and that the RN carries. Stérin's money trains cadres and produces talking points. The RN transforms this cultural hegemony into electoral victories.

And all three find in American technofascism — that of Thiel, Musk, the Trump administration — a model and allies. When Peter Thiel is received at the Academy three days after Bernard Arnault's induction in the presence of Bolloré and Rachida Dati, it is not a social coincidence. It is a photograph of the convergences underway.

Systemic Racism as Infrastructure

These political movements and technological tools do not float in a vacuum. They rely on — and reinforce — systemic racism^[32] deeply rooted in French institutions.

On June 26, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against France for discriminatory identity checks — a first^[33]. The Seydi and Others v. France ruling concerned an applicant who had undergone three checks in ten days, one without legal basis, and who considered himself targeted because of his skin color. The ECHR found that there was a "presumption of discrimination" that the French government had not rebutted.

This decision came two days after the publication of a survey by the Defender of Rights confirming the scale of the phenomenon. According to this study conducted with 5,030 people, identity checks have exploded: 26% of the population surveyed reports having been checked at least once in the past five years, compared to 16% in 2016^[34].

But the most damning figures concern discrimination. People perceived as "Arab, Black, or North African" have a 28% chance of being checked multiple times, compared to 12% for people perceived as white. Young racialized men are four times more likely to undergo at least one check, and twelve times more likely to undergo a "thorough" check (search, pat-down)^[35].

These checks are regularly accompanied by conduct contrary to professional ethics: 19% of people checked report being addressed informally (using "tu" instead of "vous"), insulted, provoked, or subjected to "brutal behavior"^[36].

In 2024, 9,350 racist crimes and offenses were recorded by police and gendarmerie — an 11% increase compared to 2023, which is part of a continuous rise since 2016^[37]. These figures represent only the visible part of the phenomenon: they only count complaints actually filed, in a context where victims of racism have good reasons to distrust law enforcement.

Algorithmic Video Surveillance: Laboratory of Social Control

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games served as a testing ground for a new surveillance technology: algorithmic video surveillance (AVS)^[38]. Under the guise of counter-terrorism, France became the first country in the European Union to legalize these systems.

AVS does not just record. It analyzes in real time the behavior of filmed people: crowd movements, presence in a prohibited zone, abandoned objects, "suspicious" behaviors. It is an "algorithmic layer" added to existing cameras, which allows transferring to machines the detection work formerly reserved for humans.

The law of May 2023 provided for experimentation until March 2025. In February 2025, the government tried to extend the system until 2027 through an amendment slipped into a law on "safety in transport." The Constitutional Council censured this provision in April^[39].

But as La Quadrature du Net^[40] documents, AVS has in reality been deployed "for almost a decade in complete illegality" in many French cities. Marseille, Reims, Vannes, Moirans, Saint-Denis: municipalities bought this software without waiting for a legal framework. The Olympics law only "legitimized an existing practice while masking the extent of this reality."

A France Info investigation in November 2025 revealed the "enormous opacity" surrounding these deployments: "Cities don't necessarily communicate about these systems for fear that CNIL will come down on them," confides an elected official under condition of anonymity^[41].

The BriefCam software, of Israeli origin, has included a facial recognition function since 2018. According to a report from the general inspectorates, this functionality was used at least once "outside the legal framework" by law enforcement in 2023^[42].

Amnesty International warns: "From algorithmic video surveillance to facial recognition, there is only one step. Technically, it would only be a feature to activate on AVS software."^[43] In March 2025, Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region, declared to Le Parisien: "I am in favor of going even further and using facial recognition for all dangerous persons wanted by police services."

A Convergence of Threats

What strikes in this investigation is the convergence of actors and strategies.

Peter Thiel, received at the French Academy three days after the induction of Bernard Arnault — France's richest person — in the presence of Vincent Bolloré and Rachida Dati. American libertarian billionaires connected to French traditionalist Catholic networks. Surveillance companies under contract with intelligence services. Opinion media that hammer the same obsessions as think tanks funded by the same fortunes. A far-right party convicted of embezzlement but given as favorite for the next presidential election.

These actors do not necessarily share the same objectives. Thiel dreams of a post-democratic world governed by visionary "founders." Stérin wants to "serve Christ and France." Bolloré defends a nostalgic Catholic conservatism for a mythified France. The RN pursues its strategy of power conquest.

But their actions converge toward the same horizon: the weakening of democratic checks and balances, the normalization of far-right ideas, the establishment of technological infrastructures of surveillance and control, and the designation of scapegoats — immigrants, Muslims, feminists, anti-racists, environmentalists — as responsible for society's ills.

What philosopher Achille Mbembe calls "necropolitics"^[44] — the power to decide who can live and who must die — finds in these convergences a troubling relevance. When ImmigrationOS allows tracking and deporting human beings with Amazon Prime's logistical efficiency^[45], when software decides who is "suspicious" in public space, when media dehumanize entire populations daily, the conditions for institutionalized violence are in place.

What We Can Do

Faced with this situation, discouragement would be understandable. But it would also be a victory for those who want to make us believe that their world is inevitable.

Inform yourself and inform others. The investigations cited in this article — those of Mediapart, Disclose, Basta!, StreetPress, La Quadrature du Net, RSF — constitute essential documentation work. Read them, share them, support them financially.

Name things. What is happening is not a "drift" or a "slide." It is a coordinated offensive against democracy, led by identifiable actors with considerable means. Refuse euphemisms.

Mobilize. Past victories have been won at the local level. Residents of Saint-Étienne had a project for "suspicious noise detector" microphones cancelled in 2019. Parents in Marseille and Nice prevented the installation of facial recognition gates at high schools. Montpellier adopted a resolution banning biometric surveillance. Counter-demonstrations at Stérin's "Nights of the Common Good" led to cancellations and withdrawals.

Build solidarities. The most exposed people — racialized, immigrants, precarious — are on the front lines. Support them concretely, not just symbolically. Join or fund the associations that support them.

Refuse resignation. Fascism advances because it succeeds in convincing that there is no alternative. Every act of resistance, however modest, demonstrates the opposite.

Conclusion: The Door and the Wall

On January 26, 2026, Peter Thiel entered through the great door of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. Someone opened that door. Someone decided that this man's ideas deserved to be heard in one of the most prestigious places of the Republic.

This is not an accident. It is a choice. And this choice tells us something about the state of our institutions, about the porosity of French elites to authoritarian ideologies, about the normalization of what should remain unacceptable.

Fascism does not always knock at the door. Sometimes, we open it for him. Sometimes, he is already in the house, sitting in front of the television, connected to databases, ready to decide who belongs and who must leave.

Our work is to build the wall. Brick by brick, investigation by investigation, mobilization by mobilization.

Fascism advances because we let it advance. We refuse to look away.