Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République

GSPR agents protecting the President of France, François Hollande

The Security Group for the Presidency of the Republic (French: Groupe de sécurité de la présidence de la République) (GSPR) is the security unit created in 1983 in charge of the safety of President of France.

In the past, the group was composed of 30 gendarmes and 30 policemen and a Lieutenant-Colonel of Gendarmerie or a Commissaire divisionnaire de Police was alternately in charge.

During the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, the Group was only composed of policemen from the Service de Protection des Hautes Personnalités and from the RAID unit. During the Sarkozy period the unit had 90 members - 30 more because of higher threat levels. No Gendarmerie officers were selected to be in the unit as Sarkozy believed he should not be protected by the French military.^[1]

Gendarmerie officers came back to the unit after the election of François Hollande in 2012. In December 2012, there are about 20 gendarmes detached from the GIGN. The Group is now composed of 60 members.

Since May 2012, the unit has been headed by a policewoman, Commissaire divisionnaire de Police Sophie Hatt, born in 1968.

Equipment

In addition to an extensive fleet, GSPR members are armed with the following weapons：

• ASP expandable baton
• Glock 17 pistol
• Glock 26 pistol
• Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine guns
• Brügger & Thomet MP9 sub-machine guns
• Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles

References

1. Special Weapons December 2009 issue, page 50