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Jean-Louis Langlais is the new President of the French Mission

The French MIVILUDES (Governmental Mission to Watch and Fight Cultic Deviances), the new incarnation of the old MILS (Governmental Mission to Fight Cults) has its president, in the person of Mr. Jean-Louis Langlais, an officer within the Ministry of Internal Affairs in charge of international relations.
Mr. Langlais was born in Argentat (Corrèze) on May 24, 1939. As many French bureaucrats, he attented the famous ENA, the National School of Administration, between 1965-1967 and obtained a B.A. in law. He spent all his career in the French bureaucracy, working for the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the regions of Aude (1967-1968) and Eure (1968-70), and became the main associate of Pierre Messmer, Minister for French Overseas Department, during 1971-1972. He worked for the Ministry of Youth and Sport (1973-1976), for the Ministry of Territory (1976-1977), for Prime Minister Rayond Barre (1977-1979). He was director of youth affairs at the Ministry of Youth and Sport between 1979-1984, well before this Ministry became active in anti-cult activities. In 1984, he joined again the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he hold several positions and distinguished himself as an expert in anti-drug activities.
Although it is too early to predict the attitude of Mr. Langlais, the fact that a bureaucrat has been selected rather than an anti-cultist is significant and may herald a return to the low profile of the pre-1998 Observatory of Cults, the more moderate predecessor of MILS. The anti-cult lobby had called for the appointment of former MP Catherine Picard, co-sponsor of the anti-cult law of 2001, but her possibilities were largely torpedoed by the publication of a conspirationist anti-American book she co-authored with social scientist Anne Fournier earlier this year (Sectes, démocratie et mondialisation, Paris: PUF, 2002).

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