"Strategic issues": a former ministerial advisor calls for lifting the taboo on UFOs in France

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have become a central feature of American politics. In 2022, the Pentagon created a dedicated office to investigate the matter: the latest report, dated November 14, estimates that of the 757 reports received from around the world in one year, 21 merit further analysis . In late May 2023, NASA held its first public meeting on the study of UFOs .

But in France, this subject "is probably the most underestimated," says Sylvain Maisonneuve, a former advisor at the Ministry of Finance, on BFMTV. He wrote "Ovnis, l'enquête déclassifiée" (Ed. Albin Michel), published this Thursday, May 8. However, "it raises absolutely strategic issues and questions," he assures, stating on LinkedIn that he has been interested in this subject "for a long time" without, however, being a specialist on the subject.

"In France, it's still widely considered to be something that falls under conspiracy theories, science fiction, or sectarian excesses, whereas in the United States, it has become a real issue for public debate," adds the former ministerial advisor who remained at Bercy from 2020 to 2025.

Asked about this in the columns of Le Parisien, he agrees: "It's not about saying something completely ridiculous or aberrant like 'UFO=alien', 'extraterrestrial=invasion'. That's for Hollywood films."

"It's simply a matter of asking ourselves, when faced with incidents of varying intensity, how we are capable of reacting," he explains.

Sylvain Maisonneuve calls for the Ministry of the Armed Forces to have "a structured" capacity to "gather information and collect data" for "strategic analysis and anticipation." He notes, however, that France was a "pioneer" in 1977 when it created a "civilian body"—now known as the Geipan—tasked with gathering witness accounts.

"My experience in ministry has taught me one thing: what we believe to be impossible, because we haven't yet understood it, is often what ends up surprising us," he explains in a LinkedIn post.

Within the Ministry of the Economy, his project "intrigued" some, and was even perceived by some as "a risk to his reputation." "But we can't regret that the subject is wrongly radioactive and ourselves not go ahead and release something under our name," emphasizes Sylvain Maisonneuve.

In this book, Prosol's new chief strategy officer claims to decipher recently declassified Pentagon videos and documents. QR codes redirect readers to the images described or even to debates held in the US Congress on the subject.

Among the cases analyzed? The "giant Tic Tac." Between the summer of 2014 and March 2015, soldiers from a U.S. carrier strike group claimed to have seen off the coast of California "a white object roughly the size of a fighter jet" with no windows or "visible means of propulsion," Sylvain Maisonneuve explained on BFMTV.

This UFO was "capable of reaching absolutely extraordinary speeds, acceleration forces that are totally incompatible with what we are capable of doing" today, he claims.

It should be noted that the Pentagon states in its latest report on the subject that to date, "no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology" has been discovered.

Sylvain Maisonneuve himself agrees that "most observations made today by civilians have entirely reasonable explanations," such as Starlink satellites, drones, asteroids, or even "poorly understood" meteorological phenomena like blue jets.