France was on edge Saturday on the eve of its most unpredictable presidential election in decades, which will take place under heightened security after the jihadist killing of a policeman.<\/p>\n
The shooting on Paris\u2019s world-renowned Champs Elysees avenue on Thursday, claimed by the Islamic State group, thrust questions of security to the fore of campaigning after nine months of relative calm.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, police arrested a man carrying a knife at Paris\u2019s Gare du Nord station, briefly causing panic as some passengers rushed out of the way.<\/p>\n
The French consulate in New York, where expatriates were casting ballots, was also briefly evacuated late Saturday after a suspicious vehicle raised fears of a bomb threat. The situation returned to normal after less than an hour and voting activities resumed.<\/p>\n
France goes to the polls on Sunday in an election seen as crucial for the future of a deeply divided country and the beleaguered European Union.<\/p>\n
Surveys suggest that nearly a quarter of voters are still undecided and that until now the French have been more concerned about jobs and the economy than terrorism.<\/p>\n
But analysts said the policeman\u2019s shooting could shift opinions, perhaps handing an advantage to candidates seen as taking a hard line on security, such as far-right leader Marine Le Pen.<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t give in to fear\u2019<\/p>\n
Le Pen and 39-year-old centrist former banker Emmanuel Macron are leading the polls but the race has tightened in the final days and any one of four candidates could reach the runoff on May 7.<\/p>\n
Conservative Francois Fillon and hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon are both just a few points behind the frontrunners.<\/p>\n
Around 50,000 police and 7,000 soldiers will be deployed to protect voters on Sunday, with the contingent boosted in Paris after the Champs Elysees shooting.<\/p>\n
The killing of policeman Xavier Jugele by 39-year-old gunman Karim Cheurfi was the latest in a string of terror attacks in France since 2015 that have claimed more than 230 lives.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump tweeted that he thought the shooting \u201cwill have a big effect\u201d on the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it were to benefit someone that would clearly be Marine Le Pen who has dominated this issue throughout the campaign, or Francois Fillon,\u201d said Adelaide Zulfikarpasic of BVA pollsters.<\/p>\n
Le Pen moved quickly after the shooting to present herself as the strongest defender against Islamist extremists, calling for France to \u201cimmediately\u201d take back control of its borders from the EU and deport all foreigners on a terror watchlist.<\/p>\n
Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused Le Pen of attempting to exploit the killing, \u201cas she does after every tragedy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Macron described the shooting as an attack on democracy, urging voters: \u201cDo not give in to fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as in the US, voting began Saturday in several overseas French territories such as Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
Adrien Gontier, an expat voting at the French embassy in Washington, said he was fulfilling his duty as a citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the United States, you can see what happens when people don\u2019t vote, or vote badly,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want there to be a Trump in France.\u201d<\/p>\n
A BVA poll conducted on Thursday and Friday showed Le Pen and Macron tied on 23 percent, ahead of Melenchon with 19.5 percent and Fillon on 19 percent.<\/p>\n
A total of 11 candidates are in the running, most of them in single digits.<\/p>\n
14 years in prison<\/p>\n
A clearer picture was meanwhile emerging of the Champs Elysees gunman\u2019s violent past.<\/p>\n
Cheurfi was arrested in February on suspicion of plotting to kill police officers but released because of a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n
A serial offender, he spent nearly 14 years in prison for a range of crimes including attacks on police. He had shown \u201cno signs of radicalisation\u201d while in custody, said France\u2019s anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins.<\/p>\n
Three of his close associates were released after questioning late Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir interviews notably allowed us to gather certain elements on the attacker\u2019s profile and personality,\u201d a source close to the inquiry said.<\/p>\n
Cheurfi\u2019s former lawyer Jean-Laurent Panier described him as \u201cvery solitary and introverted\u201d.<\/p>\n
The shooting came days after two men were arrested in Marseille on suspicion of planning an imminent attack and follows a series of deadly strikes around Europe in the past month, targeting Stockholm, London and Saint Petersburg.<\/p>\n
By sad coincidence, slain policeman Jugele had gone to the Bataclan concert hall\u2014one of the targets in November 2015\u2019s Paris attacks\u2014on the night of its reopening, as an ordinary concert-goer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here with my friend to celebrate life and to say no to terrorism,\u201d he had said in a BBC radio interview that emerged Saturday.<\/p>\n
Some 200 angry wives of police officers held a protest near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, demanding better protection for their spouses while on duty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France was on edge Saturday on the eve of its most unpredictable presidential election in decades, which will take place under heightened security after the jihadist killing of a policeman. The shooting on Paris\u2019s world-renowned Champs Elysees avenue on Thursday, claimed by the Islamic State group, thrust questions of security to the fore of campaigning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[321],"class_list":{"0":"post-3794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-france-on-edge-ahead-of-presidential-vote"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}