The Rise mentioned the possibility in 2020. It is now official. A GIGN antenna (AGIGN) will open its doors to Caen, in Calvados. Objective, according to the elite group of the Gendarmerie national, “strengthen the territorial network in specialized intervention“ on the great north-western quarter.
Since the 2015 regional reform and the implementation of the new national intervention plan in 2017, Normandy was the only one of the 13 new regions not to have a branch of a specialized police intervention unit or of the Gendarmerie. It is now done.
Read also: The Gendarmerie is considering setting up a GIGN antenna in Caen
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32 soldiers will join the GIGN branch in Caen this summer
Concretely, a first team of ten people will join the capital of the former Lower Normandy on April 1. It will initially carry out scouting and prepare for the arrival of the rest of the workforce, scheduled for this summer. They will then be 32 soldiers, mostly from the AGIGNs in Nantes and Tours. Ultimately, the workforce will then rise to around fifty people. Since a reform enacted at the end of 2019, the AGIGNs in fact integrate technical gendarmes in authority escort and site security (TEASS). Trained by the GIGN, they are deployed in particular for the protection of embassies and diplomatic personnel.
Read also: A thousand men for a new generation GIGN by spring 2021
In the meantime, the creation of a GIGN antenna represents a number of challenges as entrusted to West France the boss of the Calvados gendarmes, Colonel Christophe Junqua. In fact, future staff, possibly accompanied by their relatives, will be housed on an already occupied site. This is the Le Flem barracks, which already houses nearly 250 Calvados gendarmerie as well as their families. That is to say, in total, some 700 people. It will therefore be necessary to distribute the 185 official accommodation (from F1 to F6) taking into account new arrivals.
“No one will be forced to leave the barracks. But the new arrivals of the departmental gendarmerie could go to nearby housing. Or, for others, in neighboring barracks ”, promises Christophe Junqua. If he does not have authority over this branch, the officer will ensure that “The mix is going well”.
Read also: Christophe Junqua, one of the youngest colonels in France at the head of the Calvados Gendarmerie group
Arrange the premises
Especially since it will also be necessary to fit out and secure a building dedicated specifically to the activities of the GIGN branch. This space must in particular accommodate the arms and ammunition of the specialized group as well as vehicles, such as an armored vehicle. Another difficulty is that this building will have to blend into the environment of the barracks, designed in 2011, to integrate into the urban landscape. A budget of 300,000 euros is also planned to strengthen the security of the site. In addition to housing and administrative buildings, the right-of-way also has a gymnasium and a ballroom.
Located in Satory, in the Yvelines, the GIGN now has fourteen branches. Seven in metropolitan France in Toulouse, Reims, Dijon, Orange, Nantes, Tours and Caen. But also seven in Overseas (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana, Reunion, Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia).
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