President Emmanuel Macron has decided to increase the deployment of the Army on French streets this Saturday, up to 7,000 soldiers, as a deterrent factor and due to fear of Islamist attacks. The measure, which will be implemented between now and Monday and will be maintained until further orders, has been decided after the murder, yesterday, of a teacher at a high school in Arras, in the north of the country, at the hands of a young man of Caucasian origin who He was under police surveillance for his radicalism.
A few hours after this announcement, the Louvre museum, one of the cultural emblems of France, proceeded to evacuate its visitors and staff due to a bomb threat, as announced by the French Ministry of Culture on television. The museum itself, on its social networks, informed the public of the closure throughout the day. "Dear visitors, for security reasons, the Louvre museum will remain closed today, Saturday, October 14. People who have booked a viewing will be refunded. We appreciate your understanding," read an official post on X, the old Twitter.
A spokesperson for the museum told the AFP agency that a written message had been received mentioning the risk for the museum and its visitors. Following the protocol, it was decided to evacuate people and proceed with the appropriate verifications. It was decided to close for the rest of the day as a precautionary measure in the face of such a delicate situation. The Paris prefecture put the total number of evacuees at 15,000 people.
The feeling of vulnerability is great in France due to a host of circumstances. The country is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe - more than 400,000 people - and French people and immigrants of Muslim faith number in the millions. These facts mean that French territory can easily be infected by the explosive climate in the Middle East with the new war between Israel and Hamas.
"Their hatred, our blindness," the conservative newspaper Le Figaro headlines its front-page editorial, echoing the political debate that has been exacerbated in France about how to address the problem of Islamic extremism without reducing the guarantees of the rule of law. The knowledge that the Arras murderer was being watched by the police, because he was booked, and that the day before the attack he was subjected to a check, has warmed spirits.
The extension of Operation Sentinel, the military device launched in 2015 after the massacre at the weekly Charlie Hebdo, aims to show the determination of the State to counter the threat and to reassure citizens.
More than five hundred schools opened their doors this Saturday "for a moment of unity and reflection", according to the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal.
Despite the reinforced security device, there is great concern about what could happen if the war in Gaza continues and images of the Palestinian civilian population, victims of the actions of the Israeli Army, continue to arrive. The president of the Center for Reflection on Internal Security (CRSI), lawyer Thibault de Montbrial, warned in an interview with the LCI network that, according to his sources, there has been the infiltration of terrorist cells into Europe in recent months. from Afghanistan whose objective could be to carry out attacks during the Paris Olympic Games next summer.
Montbrial expressed concern about the suburbs of large French cities, which suffer periodic eruptions of violence. According to the president of the CRSI, riots like those that occurred in July, after the death of a young man due to police shooting at a traffic stop, end after a few days because drug traffickers want to preserve order so that it can continue. your business. But Montbrial fears that the events in Gaza could trigger an unstoppable, more far-reaching identity revolt, with some extremists gaining access to the arsenals of firearms held by criminals and traffickers in the suburbs, something that has not yet happened.
