In a statement, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, made a direct link between the terrorist attack in Moscow late last month and foiled attacks on French soil. The terrorist organization “Islamic State Khorasan Province” (ISPK) has made “several attacks attempts in France in recent months,” said Macron. The ISPK was founded in 2014 by defecting Taliban and al-Qaeda members in Pakistan and Afghanistan and claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow last Friday.
At a meeting of the National Security Council in the Élysée Palace, it was decided to raise the alert threshold to the highest level. France has had a terror prevention plan, “Vigipirate,” since 1995, which includes three alert levels. Since the beginning of the year, the second level “increased risk of attack” has been in effect; now the highest level “emergency attack” has been declared. The measure primarily serves to increase the number of police officers who guarantee the protection of particularly vulnerable places. Those who pose a threat can be placed under house arrest, demonstrations and other gatherings of people can be banned with reference to the security situation. Border controls can also be imposed. The government can now choose from 300 protection measures, while the first stage only provides for 100 protection measures.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that the terrorist organization ISPK was threatening Europe. “The organization has recently been involved in several foiled attack plots in European countries, including Germany and France,” said the Prime Minister. The terrorist organization is said to have planned an attack on the Christmas market in Strasbourg in December 2023. On December 23, five suspected men from Central Asia were arrested in Nancy and two neighboring communities, and on December 31, three suspected Islamists were arrested near Cologne. The police were on duty at Cologne Cathedral on Christmas Eve with a large contingent to thwart a possible terrorist attack on the cathedral. The terror suspects in Germany and France are said to belong to the same IS-K network. In Paris, reference is also made to the arrest of two Afghans on March 19 by the German police in Gera. They are accused of preparing an attack on the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. The two ISPK supporters are said to have planned their attack as revenge for the Koran burnings in Sweden.
According to the Interior Ministry, a review of all “risk profiles” took place in France. In a directive to the prefects, increased protective measures were ordered, such as increased surveillance of dangerous people and an increased presence of security forces in particularly sensitive locations. The attack on the concert hall in Moscow is commonly understood as the “Russian Bataclan”. On November 13, 2015, three heavily armed terrorists took hundreds of concertgoers hostage during the band Eagles of Death Metal’s performance at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. The terrorists fired Kalashnikov assault rifles and threw hand grenades into the crowd. A total of 89 people died in the concert hall. In France it is also pointed out that the two teachers Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard were also murdered by radicalized Islamists from Chechnya and Ingushetia.
President Macron offered Russia security cooperation. This was a clear departure from his recent tough stance towards Moscow. Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, claims to have identified the “real enemy of the West”, radical Islamism. Her party Rassemblement National (RN) is critical of Macron’s Russia policy. “The great danger to our societies (…) is obviously Islamism,” said RN spokesman Sébastien Chenu on BFM-TV.
Four months before the Olympic Games in Paris, France is planning to secure the venues with a large contingent of 45,000 police officers, additionally reinforced by soldiers. Bonuses of 1,900 euros are planned for the police in the greater Paris area so that they are available in the summer. The director of the central domestic intelligence service DGSI already warned the Senate Legal Affairs Committee on March 5 of the “return of the Islamist-terrorist threat”. The terrorist organizations had their sights set on the Olympics in order to take action, she said. Berthon described the terrorist networks as “dynamic.” “They are characterized by young profiles who are very active online, consume highly violent content and are able to take quick action using simple means,” said the intelligence chief. “This presents our services with major challenges.” The domestic secret service DGSI, as the lead authority in the fight against terrorism, has created an ad hoc structure in preparation for the Olympics that centralizes and follows up all evidence of a terrorist threat. This is intended to ensure that there are no gaps in the transfer of information.
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