When Islamist terrorists struck France five months ago, President François Hollande seized on a rare moment of national unity to preside over a massive peace rally in defense of free speech — a move that earned him his biggest ever one-month gain in opinion polls, rep[orts Politico.
That scenario will not be repeated in the wake of Friday’s gruesome attack in Isère.
This time, the mood is less one of palpable relief after a collective trial than of anger, sadness and exasperation, all centered
around a question: How could a well-equipped intelligence community let yet another known Islamist radical strike on French soil, so soon and in such barbaric fashion?
The pattern is worrying. As was the case when two armed men attacked the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in January, or when one of their acolytes took hostages at a kosher supermarket near Paris — or when Mohamed Merah went on a killing spree in Toulouse three years ago — the perpetrators were all known to police, to varying decrees.
Each time, intelligence case officers charged with monitoring hundreds of radicalized individuals knew the subjects but either lost track of them, were led astray by manipulative subjects, or simply missed the cues of an imminent attack.
The failure appears more galling after prime minister Manuel Valls pledged in January to invest billions of taxpayer euros to beef up internal security and hire thousands of new intelligence officers to combat terrorism and counteract jihadi ideology.
Other measures designed to thwart terrorism, including a poorly funded de-radicalization scheme, anti-jihad propaganda online and plans to improve training for imams, have not discouraged dozens more French youths from seeking to join Islamist groups in Syria — nor did they prevent Friday’s fresh outbreak of horror.
Already deeply unpopular and facing a presidential election in two years, Hollande will now have to fend off pointed questions about his government’s security record from opponents on the right, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen.