Despite widespread protests across the country in recent days, the French government confirmed on Wednesday that it would seek a three-month extension of the state of emergency it declared after the attacks in and around Paristhat left 130 people dead in November, reports The New York Times.
The extension is one of several pieces of legislation that the French government has been pushing for in the aftermath of the attacks, including a bill that would increase the powers of the police and antiterrorism investigators, as well as a much-debated proposal to strip the citizenship of people convicted of terrorism. The citizenship proposal recently prompted the French justice minister to quit.
President François Hollande declared the state of emergency a day after the coordinated attacks on Nov. 13, which were carried out by teams of Islamic State gunmen. The French Parliament voted several days later to extend it for a three-month period that expires on Feb. 26. Lawmakers are expected to approve the new extension this month.
The state of emergency expands the powers of the French authorities, giving them the ability to carry out police raids and to put people under house arrest without the prior authorization of a judge.
A statement released by Mr. Hollande’s office after a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday said that the police had conducted 3,289 raids since the attacks, and that 303 people were still under house arrest.
The number of new raids and house arrests has dropped significantly since the first few weeks after Nov. 13, but the statement said that France was still facing a “very high” terrorist threat, citing recent attacks both abroad and at home.
Stéphane Le Foll, a government spokesman, said at a news conference after the cabinet meeting that the state of emergency was “necessary” and had been “useful.” He added that it “must continue to be useful.”
Thousands of people took to the streets around France last week to protest the state of emergency, which critics say has lasted too long and provided few results. Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, wrote in the newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday that the extension would usher in a “difficult period for human rights in France.”