French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne today criticized the political use of the stabbing of four children and two adults in Annecy by a Syrian refugee, which has led some on the right and far-right to call for more border controls and a safer immigration.
“Wanting to draw lessons when the investigation is not yet concluded does not seem like a good method to me,” Borne said in an interview with France 3, in which he insisted that there are still many elements to be clarified.
The four child victims of the attack, ranging in age from 22 months to three years, and one of the two injured adults, all stabbed, remain hospitalized. But since Saturday it was learned that none of them is in danger of dying.
The incident took place on Thursday morning in a park on the edge of Lake Annecy in the French Alps.
The assailant, Abdemasih H., a 31-year-old Syrian Christian with refugee status in Sweden, who had been homeless in France since October 2022, attacked them with a knife for reasons yet to be determined.
So far, investigators have not found any terrorist motive, nor have they been able to determine if it was a mental disorder. Witnesses heard him make allusions to his wife and daughter, who live in Sweden, and to Jesus Christ during the attack.
In any case, from day one, leaders of the extreme right, such as Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, but also of the traditional right, such as Éric Ciotti, linked what happened to a migration policy in France and the European Union, which, in his opinion, it was inconsistent and lax.
The prime minister said on Sunday that she was aware of French concerns about immigration and stressed that they did not wait “for this drama to happen to take action.”
He recalled that his government is discussing with the traditional right-wing party, the Republicans, a bill that they intend to present in July for greater effectiveness and speed in the expulsion of irregular migrants and those whose asylum applications are rejected.
The author of the attacks entered the prison on Saturday and is being held in a cell isolated from the rest of the detainees, after being accused of the crimes of attempted homicide, which can lead to life imprisonment, and rebellion with a weapon.
The mayor of Annecy, the environmentalist François Astorg, at a funeral in memory of the victims this morning in the same park where the attack took place, appealed to the population not to “give in to the temptation of hate”.
Source: TSF
