PARIS — The French authorities, responding to a number of assaults over the previous seven months, offered a new anti-terrorism invoice on Wednesday that will enable intense algorithmic surveillance of telephone and web communications and tighten restrictions on convicted terrorists rising from jail.

Prepared earlier than the most recent terrorist assault — the fatal stabbing 5 days in the past of a police worker by a radicalized Tunisian immigrant — the invoice assumed larger urgency in a nation the place emotions of insecurity have unfold.

“There have been nine attacks in a row that we could not detect through current means,” Gérald Darmanin, the inside minister, instructed France Inter radio. “We continue to be blind, doing surveillance on normal phone lines that nobody uses any longer.”

The draft invoice, ready by Mr. Darmanin, got here in a political and social local weather envenomed by Marine Le Pen, the far-right chief, who applauded a letter revealed this month by 20 retired generals that described France as being in a state of “disintegration” and warned of a potential coup in thinly veiled phrases.

Published in a right-wing journal, Valeurs Actuelles, the generals’ letter portrayed a nation ravaged by violence, swept by hatred and prey to subversive ideologies bent on stirring a racial warfare. “If nothing is done,” they mentioned, “laxity will spread inexorably across society, provoking in the end an explosion and the intervention of our active-service comrades in the perilous protection of our civilization’s values.”

In such a state of affairs, they warned, the useless “will be counted in the thousands.”

The letter might need remained a fringe outburst by a group of retired officers — it was later signed by greater than 1,000 retired army personnel, in line with the journal — however Ms. Le Pen propelled it to nationwide prominence by interesting to the generals “to join our movement and take part in the battle that is beginning.”

Their evaluation of the ills of French society was exactly hers, she mentioned, and it was incumbent on all patriots to “rise up for the recovery and — let’s say it — the salvation of our country.”

Prime Minister Jean Castex condemned the generals’ letter on Wednesday as “contrary to all our Republican principles,” and its use by Ms. Le Pen as “totally unacceptable.”

Ms. Le Pen’s embrace of the retired generals’ incendiary warning additionally provoked the fury of Defense Minister Florence Parly.

“The words of Ms. Le Pen reflect a grave ignorance of the military that is worrying for someone who wants to become commander in chief,” Ms. Parly said on Twitter, alluding to the far proper chief’s candidacy within the presidential election subsequent yr.

She continued: “The politicization of the armed forces suggested by Ms. Le Pen would weaken our military and therefore France itself. The armed forces are not there to campaign but to defend France and protect the French.”

The protection minister mentioned the retired officers concerned may very well be disciplined, and checks had been being performed to confirm whether or not any active-service army personnel had been concerned.

The letter, revealed on the 60th anniversary of a failed coup by generals against France’s granting independence to Algeria, amounted to a distillation of the acute proper’s conviction that France is being torn aside by the form of violence that final week killed the police officer, Stéphanie Monfermé. Her assailant’s place of getting been in France illegally for a decade earlier than regularizing his standing solely fueled the proper’s ire.

The retired generals alluded to the “suburban hordes” — a derogatory reference to the primarily Muslim immigrants gathered in getting old tower-block developments round main French cities — who they mentioned had been detaching segments of the nation “to transform them into territories subject to dogmas opposed to our Constitution.”

One such dogma, they made clear, was “Islamism” and one other rampant “racialism” — a phrase used usually in France to denounce the importation from the United States of types of id politics that see points via the prism of race.

Ms. Le Pen has been engaged in what French commentators name a “banalization” operation geared toward making her look extra mainstream. Her outburst clearly didn’t assist this effort. An tried pivot in a radio interview, wherein she mentioned that every one issues ought to be solved peacefully, betrayed her unease.

Mr. Darmanin’s draft invoice would, if accredited by Parliament, pave the way in which for elevated use of laptop algorithms that enable the automated processing of information from telephones and net addresses to detect potential terror threats. This use, patchy and experimental till now, could be enshrined in legislation, and intelligence providers would have the ability to maintain the info for analysis functions for as much as two months.

Laurent Nuñez, France’s nationwide intelligence and counterterrorism coordinator, instructed France Inter that the method would apply to communications with folks dwelling in delicate areas, such as Syria, the place strongholds of jihadist terrorists stay.

“An algorithm tomorrow will not be able to detect the content of this communication,” Mr. Nuñez mentioned, by means of instance. But it could have the ability “to detect that an individual in France has come into contact with an individual in northwestern Syria.”

Intelligence providers might then ask for permission to additional examine the case.

Mr. Darmanin, responding to issues that civil liberties will probably be gravely infringed, mentioned that a number of layers of authorization could be required earlier than tapping the conversations of individuals detected as suspect by the algorithms.

Concern about infractions of civil liberties within the battle in opposition to terrorism have been rising for a while. Arthur Messaud, a lawyer for an affiliation that defends private on-line rights and freedom, instructed France Inter the scope of the brand new measures was unclear. For instance, would all instantaneous messaging be monitored?

The draft invoice would additionally enable the federal government to watch terrorists who’ve accomplished their jail phrases by requiring them to dwell in sure areas, limiting their actions and barring them from going anyplace — like a sports activities stadium — that presents “a particular terrorism risk.”

Constant Méheut contributed reporting.