French President Emmanuel Macron has said his country will be “merciless” in deporting foreign extremists residing in France.
Macron has told his interior minister and fellow Renaissance party member Gérald Darmanin to take the hard line the wake of another fatal Islamist stabbing in the country on October 13, local media has reported.
“The state will be merciless with those who embody hatred,” Macron’s Élysée has stated regarding the changes.
Darmanin now aims to deport any foreign migrant deemed to be a danger to France by the country’s security apparatus.
Darmanin plans to carry out this order via the “identification throughout the national territory of those who are dangerous, systematic withdrawal of the residence permit for those who are foreigners, systematic expulsion of any foreigner … considered dangerous by the intelligence services”.
Some 7,000 soldiers are being deployed to help keep French streets safe, with Darmanin also ordering law enforcement and prison officials to ensure no radicals go unnoticed by the state.
A teacher was killed and several people injured in a knife attack in a school in the northern France city of Arras on Friday, BFM TV said. https://t.co/g9dwdUGbcA
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 13, 2023
The fiery rhetoric comes after another Islamic knife attack that left one dead and two injured, with rising tensions in Israel and Palestine also prompting fears that terror attacks could rise.
Macron’s government is keen to crack down on any such rise before it begins. Darmanin has even been given the green light to negotiate with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia to help with deportations.
Moscow’s aid is seen as a requirement due to the origin of many Islamic extremists. A significant number of those who may be potential terrorists originally hail from the Chechen Republic, part of the Russian Federation.
The alleged perpetrator of the October 13 attack is said to originate from that region. Darmanin said France was monitoring around 60 Chechens suspected of being extremists.
“Around 40 are either in prison or deprived of their liberty,” he added, saying that the remaining number could, in theory, be deported.
France has also banned protests in favour of Palestine, with Darmanin announcing supporters of the region as being likely to “generate disturbances to public order”.
“I will no longer comment on anything that has even the remotest connection to Islam,” said author and journalist Constantin Schreiber. https://t.co/Qxpxj4Qk2a
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 14, 2023
