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SIX PEOPLE LINKED to French extreme right movements were detained today on suspicions they were preparing a “violent” plot against President Emmanuel Macron, sources close to the case told AFP.
The five men and one woman, aged 22 to 62, were seized by France’s DGSI domestic intelligence agency, which did not release their identities, one of the sources said.
Four suspects were picked up in the northeastern city of Moselle, a little more than an hour’s drive from Verdun, which Macron was visiting Tuesday as part of weeklong commemorations of the World War I centenary.
Another was detained in southeast France and a sixth in the west.
An inquiry opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office, in charge of terrorism investigations across the country, is focusing on “a vague and ill defined project at this stage,” one of the sources said.
Yesterday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had warned that France remained “on alert” over the threats posed by “extremist networks both on the right and left, which are quite active in our country”.
Attempts
It was not the first known attempt against Macron.
In July 2017, a 23-year-old was charged with plotting to assassinate the president at France’s Bastille Day military parade.
The man told investigators he wanted to kill Macron along with “Muslims, Jews, blacks and homosexuals,” and three kitchen knives were found in his car.
Several other suspected far-right members have been arrested since 2017 — the year Macron was elected president — after police found they might be preparing imminent attacks.
This summer 13 people with links to the radical Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces Action) group were arrested by anti-terrorist police over an alleged plot to attack Muslims.
And 10 people were also arrested in October 2017 over suspicions of wanting to target Muslims as well as politicians like the far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon as well as Castaner.
In a report filed by the DGSI as part of that investigation, it said the far right in France consisted of several disparate and competing groups with only “limited” operational capacity.
But late to the party Journal.ie. read that story on Joe.ie 6 hours ago.
@Peter Cavey: joe.ie’s source for their story was probably a snapchat story from one of their intern’s old French pen-pals.
@Paddington C.: And even if so, it’s still faster reporting that thejournal
@Sean Murphy: yeah, well… “reporting”.
@Peter Cavey: Yep, same on BBC website. Wonder when we’ll read about the Italian budget row with Moscovici in the EU or the latest on the possibility of the digital tax collapsing due to countries planning to chase their own agenda.
@wattsed: you should ask for your money back.
@Paddington C.: They don’t do sterling, yet.
@wattsed: And yet, here you all are, whining as usual.
@Bridget O’Hanlon: I know, I need to simply stick to sites that provide journalism. My mistake.
@Paddington C.: One thing we can agree on is Joe.ie is muck, a stain on the underpants of news platforms everywhere.
And dont get me started on sports joe or her.ie
have your say