It is almost midnight when Gérald Darmanin crosses the Bir-Hakeim bridge, in Paris, in the dark and cold night of this first weekend in December. Three hours earlier, on Saturday, an Islamist terrorist, armed with a knife and a hammer, killed a German-Filipino tourist and injured two other people a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower, in the 15th arrondissement of the capital. In Doha (Qatar), where he was completing an express tour of the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron was informed of the attack by his aide-de-camp.
He immediately spoke with the Minister of the Interior, already there. On the plane which then took him back to France, the Head of State expressed “all (his) condolences to the family and loved ones of the German national who died this evening during the terrorist attack”. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, which has taken up the case, “will be responsible for shedding light on this matter so that justice is done in the name of the French people”, adds the president in his message published on X (formerly Twitter ).
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Barely arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, Emmanuel Macron decided to speak with the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the boss of the DGSI, Nicolas Lerner. The opportunity to carry out an initial inventory, before another safety meeting, at the end of the afternoon. Chaired this time by Élisabeth Borne, the second meeting aims to “take a complete stock of the security measures in place” and “the process of caring for the most dangerous individuals”, as Matignon summarizes.
Around the table: Éric Dupond-Moretti (Justice), Aurélien Rousseau (Health), Olivier Véran (spokesperson), and Gérald Darmanin (Interior), who then reported the substance to “20 Heures” on TF1. “France is permanently under the influence of the Islamist terrorist threat. We must fight very strongly against radical Islam,” insisted the Minister of the Interior. “We will not give in in the face of terrorism,” Élisabeth Borne had already promised, in the same tone, in a message on were raised all day long to demand the unity of the French in order to “fight against those who attack our values”.
Less than two months after the Arras attack – which cost the life of Professor Dominique Bernard on October 13 – this new attack also aroused the anger and indignation of certain elected officials. The boss of LR, Éric Ciotti, thus denounced the repeat offender profile of the attacker “radicalized, on S file and already convicted for acts linked to terrorism”. Marine Le Pen, for her part, expressed her “thoughts for the target victims of a terrorist registered as S and already convicted for acts linked to Islamism”.
From Italy, where he met his European allies this weekend, the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, for his part accused the government of being “responsible for a security and migratory situation (…) which has become completely out of control. control”. “Today, walking under the Eiffel Tower, in the heart of Paris, means taking the risk of dying. What have they done with our country?”, pretended to wonder the leader of Reconquête!, Éric Zemmour.
On the left, where reactions were later, Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke out after remaining silent for a long time. Rather than speaking of a terrorist act, the Insoumis leader denounced a “murder and injuries for the delusional motive of religion”. “The murderer is on psychiatric case, under surveillance for a year after four years in prison for attempted murder,” he continued, in reference to the neurological disorders from which the assailant suffered. “It is time to realize the consequences of the collapse of the psychiatric system!” concluded the third man in the last presidential election.
Earlier, the coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard, had called for “not to give general political significance” to the attack, committed according to him by “a person who is clearly unbalanced”. Same warning among the Ecologists, where Marine Tondelier asked the question of “means and psychiatric monitoring”. As for the PS, Olivier Faure more soberly addressed his “thoughts and condolences to the loved ones of the murdered tourist”, and reaffirmed his “gratitude to the police officers who arrested the terrorist”.
