The French president, François Hollande, has described revelations that the US spied on three successive French presidents as unacceptable and said Paris would not tolerate actions that threaten its security.

The US ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry for an explanation after WikiLeaks documents published late on Tuesday showed that the US had bugged French leaders’ telephones.



But Hollande’s government faces accusations of hypocrisy, with MPs due to vote through a law later on Wednesday that would give intelligence agencies sweeping new powers to snoop on French people.

The bill allows phone and email intercepts without the approval of a judge, seen by critics as a serious threat to individual freedom and privacy. The French authorities argue the measures are necessary following the attacks on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Kosher supermarket in January.

It was not clear whether the timing of the WikiLeaks release was deliberate. The revelation that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on three presidents – Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hollande – caused outrage and indignation in France and prompted Hollande to call an emergency defence council meeting on Wednesday morning.

A statement after the crisis summit, described by France’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, as being “full of emotion and anger”, blasted US snooping as unacceptable and demanded it stop.

“France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the protection of its interests,” the French president’s office said, adding that US spying allegations had surfaced in the past.

“These are unacceptable facts that have already been the subject of clarification between the US and France, notably at the end of 2013 when the first revelations were made and during a state visit by the president of the republic to the United States in February 2014. Commitments were made by the US authorities. They need to be recalled and strictly respected.”

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has summoned the US ambassador to France over WikiLeaks revelations. Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

Hollande’s office said the French president had phoned Obama on Wednesday afternoon. “The exchange was a chance to emphasise the principles that must govern relations between allies in matters of intelligence,” said Hollande’s office. “President Obama clearly reiterated the firm pledge he made in November 2013, after the Snowden affair, and which was repeated during the state visit [by Hollande] in February 2014, to end practices that might have operated in the past but which are unacceptable between allies.

“French intelligence officials will very soon travel to Washington to increase cooperation.”

The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, summoned the US ambassador, Jane Hartley, to the foreign office. And government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll announced a senior French intelligence official would visit the US in the coming days for further discussions with American counterparts.



“We find it hard to understand or imagine what motivates an ally to spy on allies who are often on the same strategic positions in world affairs,” Le Foll added.

The revelations were first reported in French daily Libération and on news website Mediapart, which said the NSA spied on Chirac, Sarkozy and Hollande from at least 2006 until May 2012.

Hollande held a second crisis meeting with parliamentary groups at his Élysée Palace offices on Wednesday afternoon. Afterwards, Valls told MPs the “systematic and continued” spying on foreign leaders by America was “unacceptable and abnormal”. Valls said he could reassure MPs that France did not eavesdrop on the leaders of European and allied countries.

“Our country is loyal and knows the historical debt it owes America, but this gratitude cannot prevent us from protecting our country and citizens,” he said.

The leaked US documents, marked top secret, were based on phone taps and filed in an NSA document labelled “Espionnage Élysée” (Élysée spy), according to Libération and Mediapart.

The recorded conversations, which were handled by the summary services unit at the NSA, were said to reveal few state secrets but show clear evidence of the extent of American spying on countries considered allies. WikiLeaks documents suggest that other US spy targets included French cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the US.

“The documents contain the ‘selectors’ from the target list, detailing the cell phone numbers of numerous officials in the Élysée up to and including the direct cell phone of the president,” a report of the taps published in the French media revealed.

In an article co-authored by Julian Assange, the French newspaper Libération pointed out that in matters of spying, there are no friends. It said: “Spying abroad is the ultimate ‘grey zone’ in surveillance – it is also, in France, the real blind spot of the planned law on surveillance, expected to be adopted this Wednesday.”

Mediapart said: “For almost 10 years, the United States has listened in to French presidents … it was all classed top secret or ‘special intelligence’.

US media cited a statement from the NSA saying it was not targeting and would not target Hollande’s communications. The statement did not deny spying had taken place in the past.

Le Point magazine pointed out that France spends about €1bn (£700m) a year on its secret and intelligence services, compared with €60bn the US spends. It said this illustrated a “difference of means, but not of methods” and said the WikiLeaks revelations were nothing new.

Libération’s article on US spying was co-written by Julian Assange. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

“The secret and intelligence services have always had the role of discovering and sending to political leaders, diplomats and military personnel information allowing them to make their decisions,” it wrote. “The brutal fact is, being allies over one thing doesn’t mean we share everything or hold back on spying on our little friend.”

Bernard Debré, a member of Sarkozy’s opposition Republican party, went further, writing on his blog: “Politicians are astonished to have been spied on by the Americans! It’s a bloody hypocrisy. For years everyone has been listened in on by the NSA, the NSA has been accused by senators and governors and has drastically reduced its activity … and at the same time, France is going in the opposite direction.”

Arnaud Danjean, a former member of France’s intelligence service, the DGSE, and now a Euro MP for the Republican party, said there was nothing new in the revelations.

“It’s all very emotional, but on a technical and geopolitical level there’s nothing new in reporting that spies are spying. Being an ally doesn’t mean that you tell each other everything,” Danjean told France Info.

“When one is a diplomat, one knows one is a target. When you’re someone in the public sphere, you start from the principle that foreign countries are interested in you, you take defensive measures as a result.”