President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election team last night (Friday) denied suggestions that raids resulting in the arrest of 19 suspected Islamists were politically motivated.
The president was also accused of being “totally disproportionate” by stating the series of murders in Toulouse this month were “a little like” the September 11 attacks in terms of their deep impact on the national psyche.
With presidential elections just three weeks away, Sarkozy’s camp denied claims by some rivals that he was exploiting the Toulouse attacks to boost his chances of re-election by keeping the focus on security – a domain where he is well trusted by the French public.
“What must be understood is that the trauma of Montauban and Toulouse is profound for our country, a little – I don’t want to compare the horrors – a little like the trauma that followed in the United States and in New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks,” he told Europe 1 radio.
Elite Raid police units and DCRI domestic intelligence agents yesterday seized 16 men, three women and weapons in several cities, including Toulouse, where the extremist gunman Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police last week. In series of cold-blooded shootings Merah killed seven people, including three Jewish children. The arrests were made a day after the Franco-Algerian was buried outside Toulouse. Algerian authorities had refused to accept the corpse.
Speaking shortly after the raids, Sarkozy said: “It’s our duty to guarantee the security of the French people. We have no choice. It’s absolutely indispensable.” Raids also took place in Nantes, believed to be a centre for the Forsane Alizza group, to which Merah had been linked by some French media.
Among those arrested was Mohammed Achamlane, the suspected leader of the Salafist group, which France’s council of ministers outlawed last month citing “incitement to armed struggle”. Three Kalashnikovs, a Glock pistol and a grenade were seized at his home.
With about 100 suspected Islamist radicals on a watch list, Sarkozy warned there would be “other operations”.
Steeve Briois, the general secretary of the far-Right National Front, branded the arrests “an electoral manoeuvre”.
“Waiting for the horror of the Toulouse killings to start taking action shows the cynicism and opportunism of Nicolas Sarkozy,” he said.
Sarkozy’s invocation of the September 11 attacks was branded as “totally disproportionate” by far-Left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.