The French Presidential election campaign that could see level-headed Francois Hollande topped as the country’s leader has been temporarily halted to allow due mourning after the shooting attack in Paris that left one police officer dead and a further two seriously injured. ISIS have claimed responsibility for the attack and also claimed the shooter was a Belgian ISIS terrorist, who has since been shot and killed by police on the scene.
The election is on Sunday
The French election is even more imminent than ours – the votes for the first round are going in on Sunday.
However, this terrorist attack has thrusted the issues of extremism, national security, and immigration into the spotlight. The Presidential campaign has so far been dividing the country as much as America’s did last year, and this shooting just blows the whole thing wide open. Candidates Fillon, Le Pen, and Macron have all cancelled campaign events in the wake of the shooting in order to allow the country to mourn.
The reason for the attack has yet to be determined by authorities, although two months ago, French police managed to foil an “imminent attack on French soil.” They didn’t manage to thwart this one, despite the fact the attacker was on their list of identified extremists. This will play greatly into the French election campaign.
The far-right will have a field day with the immigration thing. Le Pen wants all Islamist mosques in France shut down (which will only serve to invite in more Terrorism) and to tighten up the borders of France. Fillon has said after the attack that if he’s elected, he’ll focus solely on crushing ISIS, which will play really well to conservative voters. Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has hit back against the right-wingers monopolising on the attack, and warned votes not to let their panic “interrupt democracy.”
