Alain Vivien

Alain Vivien is a French politician, member of the Socialist party, born with Melun on August 20th, 1938.

Biography

Wire of teacher, after studies at the University of Paris, he teaches the history as professor in the second degree of 1964 to 1973. He adheres to the Socialist party and is elected appointed of Seine-et-Marne in 1973. He becomes member of the Management Committee of the Socialist party (1975-1978). Since 2003 he is president of association For better knowing Chad.

He is especially known to have directed the MILLETS, mission interdepartmental of fight against the Sectes. His ratio of 1983 was published under the title the Sects in France (Documentation Frenchwoman 1985).

Functions

Mandates

Secretary of foreign affairs of the Government Edith Cresson (from May 17th, 1991 to April 4th, 1992)
Appointed socialist of the First district of Seine-et-Marne (1973 - 1986), then of the ninth (1988-1991).
General adviser of the Canton of Brie-Count-Robert (1970-1982).
Mayor of Combs-the-City (1977-1983 and 1989-1992)
Vice-president of the National Assembly (1982-1983)

Other functions

To advise State
President of Commission DOM-TOM of the League of the Human rights (1996 - 2001)
President of the Center Roger Ikor against mental handling (1997 - 1998)
President of the interdepartmental Mission of fight against the sects (1998 - 2002)
President of association For better knowing the Chad (since 2003)

The fight against the sects

Alain Vivien is especially known for the share which it took in the fight against the Sectes (or fights against the sectarian drifts).

As of 1978, he is the member of Parliament more implied in an action of information on the Sectes launched within the framework of the commission of the laws of the National Assembly.

This work will be stopped by the dissolution of the National Assembly of 1981.

However as of 1982, the Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy orders to him a report/ratio, completed in 1983 but made public only in 1985: “The Vivien report/ratio - the Sects in France: Expressions of moral freedom or factors of handling? ”

“The media repercussion is strong in 1986 - even Michel Polac devotes a number of “Right of reply” to the “Sectes”. ”

Introduction of the report/ratio: “The Sectes unchain passions, because they connect the men. But what are they really? Will for power of the Guru to the constant exploitation of credulity and work of the Follower S, the Sectes go to the same step. Still should they be known if one wants to avoid the traps which they tighten with most fragile among us. No systematic investigation had been made in France where one is unaware of, generally, the experiment of the foreign countries confronted with the same difficulties. This report/ratio with the Prime Minister comes to fill this gap. Alain Vivien, Appointed of Seine-et-Marne, vice-president of the National Assembly, avoided appreciating the ideological or religious contents Sectes to leave it á the analysis of their only practices. Face á their influence, it proposes to defend the free will, condition of the effective exercise of these essential Libertés which are freedoms to think and believe, to meet and to express themselves. The extreme use of freedoms by some should not destroy the Liberté itself - ours and that of others. ”

This report/ratio is the first document diffused by a Gouvernement French which warns against the existence of “Sectes” at the clearly established direction of dangerous groups and which takes again the terms proposed by associations anti-sects like the “will for power of the gurus” or “the exploitation of the followers”.

The report/ratio establishes that very few families is really concerned with a problem Secte, but that the families concerned react very highly and constituted of fight associations against the sects. Alain Vivien alerts the Prime Minister practice of removals of Adepte S called deprogramming (Deprogramming) by parents, helped by the aforementioned associations, in reaction to the lack of answer to their concerns on behalf of the representatives of the State.

The report/ratio is very alarmist and stresses that the opinion is very concerned by the problem in particular via the Médias.

Alain Vivien prescribes various measurements to fight against the Sectes like a law allowing the setting under Tutelle of a major person Adepte of a Secte on the request of his parents or his children.

“The judge could then pronounce a setting under provisional Tutelle, in accordance with a new subparagraph which could be assistant in article 488 of the Civil code. ”

He will return later seems he on the idea to legislate against the Sectes as this extract to it to interview published in Le Figaro on April 29th 1992 testifies:

“One should not create Législation particular to the risk to reveal the Sectes for Martyrs. The arsenal of which we lay out is completely sufficient, it is enough to apply it! ”.

Alain Vivien also prescribes the installation of an organization attached to the Prime Minister in load of the problem of the Sectes.

This organization will be created in 1996 under the name of “interdepartmental Observatory on the Sectes”. Alain Vivien will become the president about it when this one takes the name of MILLETS (Interdepartmental Mission of Fight against the Sectes) in 1998.

Alain Vivien will resign of this station in 2001. Its action was highly criticized by foreign observers, like the American State Department, which spoke then about Discrimination S nuns, and by academics like Massimo Introvigne of CESNUR in Italy.

Extract of the comment of Massimo Introvigne on the report/ratio 2000 of the MILLETS:

“An important section of the report/ratio of the MILLETS is devoted to the international problems of the France. It is an incredible text, where a coarse Anti-américanisme and the Nationalisme is proposed like the poor substitutes with a logical argumentation. The report/ratio is désobligeant and critical, with regard to the American State Department, of the American legislation on the Liberté of religion and of the investigations of the American Congress into the Religious liberty in France, regarding them as part of vast a Conspiration pro Sectes, also implying SOEC (the Organization for Safety and the Co-operation in Europe). The Mission is apparently proud of its participation in the meeting of SOEC of Vienna in March 1999, where the hysterical reaction of Mr. Denis Barthélémy, secretary of the Mission, exposed the MILLETS to severe criticisms international. ”

A sharp controversy around the public and associative activities of Alain Vivien and his wife bursts, whose magazine the Point is made the echo in its edition of October 19th 2001, in these terms:

“(…) Resignations, Putsch S, internal conflicts and squabbles end even up worrying the cabinet of Lionel Jospin. Because the dirty linen, washed in family in the small world of the destroyers of Gurus, fades little by little on worthy Interdepartmental Mission of Fight against the Sects (MILLETS), a “service of the Prime Minister” installed with two steps of the Hôtel Matignon. (…) President of the MILLETS, Vivien is always administrator of the CCMM (Center Against Mental Handling), while his wife, administrative director, behave there while controlling. ”

After his resignation of the MILLETS, Alain Vivien does not appear any more but seldom as an expert of the Sectes.

Principal publications

Alain Vivien and Mireille Raunet, French from Abroad , Paris (PUF, coll Which do I Know?) 1997
Alain Vivien, the Sects , Paris (Odile Jacob) 2003

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