Marine Le Pen: ‘The State is criminally absent’

“Allow me a couple of remarks about the killings at the Police Prefecture in Paris,” the president of National Rally [Rassemblement National] said in a press conference held just before the beginning of the parliamentary debate on immigration.

“We are here, as with all the issues denied by the State and because of the lies by the State. Despite the deaths, the killings; despite warnings of the imminent terrorist dangers, the State and its leader, the government and its administrative agencies have decided not to take into consideration the Islamist danger,” Le Pen said.

She said France was facing a “mortal danger that the government makes increasingly worse every day with their senseless immigration policy”.

According to Le Pen, “the State is absent, dramatically absent, criminally absent”. She said her views on the matter were “shared by many specialists” who have warned of the same thing.

“And you will notice that out of almost all of the Salafist or Islamist imams in our country, almost all of them are foreign. Therefore, of course, Monsieur Harpon [Mikaël Harpon, the jihadist] was French, born in France, but he had converted, and he was going to a radical mosque.

“And in those radical mosques, imams, especially one of the imams I told you about earlier today, was someone who had himself committed acts, and took positions so shocking that it was decided to deport him from the country.”

Le Pen said that there was “a link between anarchical immigration and the development of Islamist fundamentalism in our country”. In a tweet, she elaborated on the alarming statistics linking the two issues.

🔴 Nier le lien entre immigration, communautarisme et islamisme, c'est nier l'évidence ! Seul le RN a le courage nécessaire pour dire la vérité aux Français et a la volonté d'AGIR !

➡ Adhérez/Réadherez : https://t.co/hh67AlZoMg

👉 Faites un don : https://t.co/Qr7nswJ1zu pic.twitter.com/x5ENv6Xlhs

— Rassemblement National (@RNational_off) October 11, 2019

Two police officers from the Paris region have meanwhile been “disarmed” and one of them was suspended temporarily as fears of more Islamists within the police force grips the nation.

According to Le Parisien such reports have been multiplying within the French police, following the attack on the Paris police headquarters on 3 October. The service weapons of two officers were thus taken away, and one of them was suspended on a provisional basis.

The daily added that, according to concordant sources, the officials concerned are a 39-year-old police captain assigned to the team of police marksmen who specialize in high-risk tasks. He was suspended “as a precautionary measure”, he was asked to hand over his service weapon.

His behavior was reported in 2011 after his marriage to a Muslim lawyer. His colleagues reported that after his marriage he ostracized himself, grew his beard, refused any contact with women in his work environment, and spoke more and more about religion.

Le Parisien clarified: “He also started praying by himself in the office.” The man was the subject of an administrative and security investigation conducted by the IGPN and the Intelligence Directorate of the Prefecture of Police.

The investigation concludes that he was not radicalized, only “very religious”. He was transferred in 2018 to a position “less operational but nevertheless sensitive”, the newspaper continued, stating that “he was in charge of the Fijait, the file that lists the perpetrators of terrorist offenses”.

When he allegedly separated from his wife, he shaved his beard, and seemed less isolated. However, after the events of October 3 at the prefecture, his colleagues say they fear a possible “taqiya”, the technique of concealment recommended by jihadists. He was therefore reported as a risk.

The other “disarmed” officer is a peacekeeper stationed in the Hauts-de-Seine, in Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Aged 34 and an convert to Islam, he was dismissed from the police in September 2018. But after a legal challenge, the penalty was canceled in early 2019 by the French administrative court.

The man had encouraged his young security assistants to start praying. He also refused contacts with women. He was also accused of having lent his weapon and his police badge to a friend of the terrorist who had attacked soldiers of Operation Sentinel in Levallois-Perret in 2017.

On Monday, armed with a bottle shard, an Islamist grabbed a woman by the neck and told her that he was going to “throw her under the train”. Panic ensued on the RER B, on October 7, when the Islamist caused panic in one of the trains of the Paris network, reported RTL.

The individual – 1,9m tall – shouted: “You are all going to die!” and “Allah Akbar!”.

As two passengers hurried down to the station at Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), they were followed by this thirty-something Islamist, armed with a bottle shard and walking with a crutch. He managed to grab one by the neck while reiterating his threats. “I’m going to throw you under the train,” he told her. The two women managed to escape and the use of video surveillance helped to identify the suspect.

The latter, placed in custody, is known to the police for acts of violence. This time, he is suspected of “intentional violence with use or threat of a weapon, and threats of crime”.