During a national television appearance, Le Pen said that Islamist mosques should be closed forthwith. “Preachers of hate must be expelled, Islamist mosques closed,” Le Pen declared. “Secularism has to be applied strictly and in line with our republican principles – those which oppose the incessant provocation and spreading of the sectarian word by Islamists.”
“If I am elected president, I will put this battle plan against terrorism and penal weakness into force immediately so that we can protect the French people, and so that France and the French republic can live on.”
Le Pen said she would call for a return to French sovereignty, a resurrection of national borders, and a rejection of the European Union’s open-border Schengen zone.
“I will ask solemnly for the restoration of our effective pre-Schengen borders and for the immediate administrative and penal treatment of ISIS cases; in other words, of all individuals present on French soil who are known for their adhesion to enemy ideologies,” she said.
“We have to immediately introduce the expulsion of foreign cases, accelerated action for the loss of nationality for those with dual-nationality, and their immediate expulsion to their country of origin.”
The suspect of Thursday’s attack in Paris, Karim Cheurfi, was an ISIS terrorist also known as ‘Abu Yousuf al-Belgiki’ (The Belgian), who had already been convicted of attempting to murder police officers in 2001, but was released from prison early after serving part of a 20 year sentence.
French authorities, including the domestic security service, began a counterterrorism investigation into Cheurfi last month after they noted his increasing determination to establish communication with an ISIS fighter in Syria and Iraq, a source close to the investigation told CNN. Despite their investigation, they did not put him under surveillance.
“I don’t want you get used to the Islamic terrorism, I don’t want us to tell our youth that they will live daily with this danger. I want to put a plan of attack against Islamist terrorism,” the FN leader said.
Cheurfi was not only being investigated, but had been arrested again in February for attempting to secure weapons to assassinate police, yet he was able to move freely around the country.
A new study shows armed French police, known as the Gendarmerie, support Le Pen over her rivals in the French presidential race, according to the Ifop polling firm, as they are faced daily with the danger of Islamic terrorism.
Marion Marechal-Le Pen remarked on social media: “How does one explain to the family of the killed policeman and the French that the terrorist of the Champs Élysées, Karim Cheurfi, was at liberty despite a conviction for triple attempt of assassination of police and a suspicion of attempt of recurrence a few days ago?”
“Xavier, 37 years old, would still be alive if lax justice had not released Karim Cheurfi, only 15 years after his 3 attempted homicides on police officers,” Marion said.
The once mighty European left, who have tried to defend religious politics, is in sharp decline, Mark Blyth, a professor of international political economy at Brown University in the US state of Rhode Island, noted and “this is happening to all the major left parties in Europe”.
“Second, they are also the ‘helper apps of neo-liberalism.’ They refuse to admit that they got that wrong and hurt their core. So they can’t learn from their mistakes. Think Clinton in the US,” he adds.
Most polls show the French Socialists facing crushing defeat in the coming election on Sunday. The party of President Francois Hollande – which came to power in 2012 with 28 percent first-round support and 51 percent in the runoff – is now at 7.5 percent.
“We are in a very bad situation, yes it’s true,” Socialist Party spokesperson Corinne Narassiguin told DW in an exclusive interview.
Despite his long criminal record, Cheurfi was never placed under what is known as a “Fiche S” surveillance file by French authorities. Bernard Cazeneuve, French prime minister lamely remarked yesterday that “unity” was far more important than acting against terrorists: “In times such as these we have to demonstrate that France is united.”