France prepares to extend state of emergency until May 2017
As France is still on high alert over possible terrorist attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday that the country's state of emergency, imposed after last year's Paris attacks, will likely be extended.
"It is difficult today to end the state of emergency," Valls told BBC television as France marked exactly one year since the Nov. 13, 2015 attacks that left 130 people dead.
"Especially since we are going to begin a presidential campaign in a few weeks with meetings, with public gatherings. So we must also protect our democracy," Valls added in the interview with the BBC's "HARDtalk" program.
"Besides, this state of emergency device allows us to make arrests, administrative checks which are effective... So yes, we are probably going to live a few months more with this state of emergency."
While stressing he remained "very cautious," Valls said the risk of similar coordinated attacks appeared to have diminished. "But we may face attacks of the kind that we saw in Nice," he said, referring to the July attack in the Riviera resort. "That's to say some individuals who are driven directly by the internet, by social networks, by the Islamic Sate group, without having to go to Syria or Iraq."
As the country is under terrorist threat since 2015, a state of emergency was first announced last November in response to the coordinated Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. Another 17 people were killed in January 2015 in attacks that began with the shooting of journalists working for Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that had published cartoons mocking Islam.
After the deadly attack in the Riviera city of Nice in July plunged France into new grief and fear, France has extended the country's state of emergency for six months until the end of January 2017 due to security concerns across the country. A Tunisian drove his truck into Bastille Day revelers in Nice, killing 84 people, and two Daesh militants cut the throat of an elderly priest. With the extension of the emergency rule, the country will have been in a state of emergency for an unprecedented 14 months.
Meanwhile, on the separate subject of a possible renegotiation of the 2003 Le Touquet accords, which extend the British border to Calais's ferry ports, Valls made a plea for cooperation. "We can always change a treaty, but if tomorrow we were saying that there was no agreement, that there was no longer a treaty and that the border was open, there would be thousands and thousands of people who would converge on Britain, that would be a drama in the Channel and a major problem for Britain," he said.
The comments come after France last month demolished the notorious Jungle migrant camp in Calais, where thousands of people had been living in squalid conditions hoping to stow away on trucks headed to Britain. Under the Le Touquet agreement, Britain pays millions of euros each year for security in Calais but it is French police and border agents who are on the frontline. Many French politicians believe London has simply outsourced a problem to France and the agreement should be torn up.
"It is difficult today to end the state of emergency," Valls told BBC television as France marked exactly one year since the Nov. 13, 2015 attacks that left 130 people dead.
"Especially since we are going to begin a presidential campaign in a few weeks with meetings, with public gatherings. So we must also protect our democracy," Valls added in the interview with the BBC's "HARDtalk" program.
"Besides, this state of emergency device allows us to make arrests, administrative checks which are effective... So yes, we are probably going to live a few months more with this state of emergency."
While stressing he remained "very cautious," Valls said the risk of similar coordinated attacks appeared to have diminished. "But we may face attacks of the kind that we saw in Nice," he said, referring to the July attack in the Riviera resort. "That's to say some individuals who are driven directly by the internet, by social networks, by the Islamic Sate group, without having to go to Syria or Iraq."
As the country is under terrorist threat since 2015, a state of emergency was first announced last November in response to the coordinated Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. Another 17 people were killed in January 2015 in attacks that began with the shooting of journalists working for Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that had published cartoons mocking Islam.
After the deadly attack in the Riviera city of Nice in July plunged France into new grief and fear, France has extended the country's state of emergency for six months until the end of January 2017 due to security concerns across the country. A Tunisian drove his truck into Bastille Day revelers in Nice, killing 84 people, and two Daesh militants cut the throat of an elderly priest. With the extension of the emergency rule, the country will have been in a state of emergency for an unprecedented 14 months.
Meanwhile, on the separate subject of a possible renegotiation of the 2003 Le Touquet accords, which extend the British border to Calais's ferry ports, Valls made a plea for cooperation. "We can always change a treaty, but if tomorrow we were saying that there was no agreement, that there was no longer a treaty and that the border was open, there would be thousands and thousands of people who would converge on Britain, that would be a drama in the Channel and a major problem for Britain," he said.
The comments come after France last month demolished the notorious Jungle migrant camp in Calais, where thousands of people had been living in squalid conditions hoping to stow away on trucks headed to Britain. Under the Le Touquet agreement, Britain pays millions of euros each year for security in Calais but it is French police and border agents who are on the frontline. Many French politicians believe London has simply outsourced a problem to France and the agreement should be torn up.
Last Update: November 13, 2016 22:13