On the evening of 3 December at Paris's École Militaire, DGSE chief Nicolas Lerner stood out from the crowd not once but twice. The head of French foreign intelligence, who has led the DGSE since 9 January 2024 (IO, 19/12/23), first turned heads when he was the last to arrive at the ceremony, already in progress, to award the Académie du Renseignement's top prize. Then, during the cocktail that followed, observers noticed Lerner taking his time talking to a teenager introduced by the boy's father,
