The French president said on Tuesday that all European countries are “vulnerable” to the return of “Islamic terrorism”, a day after an attack that killed two people in Brussels and a few days after an attack in France.
Emmanuel Macron spoke during a press conference in Tirana, Albania, where he is visiting.
“All European states are vulnerable. Islamic terrorism is in fact returning and we are all vulnerable. It is the vulnerability that comes with democracies, the rule of law, where there are individuals who at any given moment can decide to commit the worst.”the French head of state said at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
“It will never be possible in a constitutional state to have a system in which the terrorist risk is completely eradicated”Macron warned and called for more surveillance, but emphasized it “It would be an extreme defeat to think that the answer lies in suspending the rule of law”.
The French head of state also added, regarding the attack that took place last Friday on a secondary school in Arras, in northern France, that he “did not see any failure” on the part of the French intelligence services and the Ministry of the Interior . .
On Friday, a French teacher was fatally stabbed by a radicalized former student. The attack was carried out by a 20-year-old Russian-Chechen man who had been flagged by French authorities on suspicion of Islamic radicalization.
On Monday, two Swedes were killed in a gun attack in Brussels. The suspect of the attack, a 45-year-old Tunisian, was shot dead by Belgian police, Belgian authorities reported on Tuesday. The Tunisian was suspected of extremism and was living illegally on Belgian territory.
Macron this Tuesday defended the anti-terrorism measures implemented since his election as president in 2017.
‘A model that allows us to be as safe as possible outside of a state of emergency’because one cannot “live in a permanent state of emergency,” he emphasized.
Source: DN
