France's National Assembly Votes to Extend State of Emergency
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - France’s national assembly voted to extend the country’s state of emergency for six months following last week’s massacre in Nice.
The state of emergency has been in place since the Paris attacks in November, and the extension on Tuesday would see the emergency security measures – which give the police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest – remain in place until the end of January 2017.
It is the fourth time that parliament has proposed prolonging the state of emergency, and the move now needs to be approved by the Senate.
French President Francois Hollande had last Thursday announced a plan to lift the emergency measures, but he changed tack hours later after a truck driver ploughed through a crowd at a 14 July fireworks display in Nice, killing 84 people. The attack was later claimed by the Islamic State group.
Hollande’s Socialist government has been under heavy criticism for its response to a slew of extremist attacks.
The fact the French president was open to the six-month extension was seen as a concession to the conservative opposition who have demanded that the state of emergency be maintained through to the end of the year.
With elections due next year, the political unity seen after last year’s attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has evaporated.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, has defended the government, saying it has bolstered security notably by sending thousands of troops into the streets.
Opposition leader and former president Nicolas Sarkozy, eyeing another run for the top job next year, has called for anyone showing signs of being radicalized to be forced to wear an electronic tag, placed under house arrest or kept in a detention center.
While some on the right think the six-month extension is not sufficient, there are also critics on the left concerned about civil liberties who say even with the state of emergency in place an attack occurred.
“We can’t lock people up on the basis of mere suspicion, or suspicion of suspicion,” minister for parliamentary relations Jean-Marie Le Guen said, AFP reported.
Investigators said on Tuesday that 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who used a 19-tonne truck to mow down revelers enjoying Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, had shown “recent interest” in terrorist activity.
Authorities found “very violent” photos on his computer, including of corpses, fighters posing with the Daesh (ISIL) flag and photos of Osama bin Laden.
