With Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne declaring on Tuesday that France “will relentlessly fight, alongside Belgium and Sweden, Islamic terrorism” and the president Emmanuel Macron to underline that “it is impossible in a State of Law to completely eliminate the risk of terrorism”the Yesterday’s murderous attack in Brussels, which resulted in the death of two Swedish citizens, is at the center of French public opinion’s interest.

The alleged perpetrator of the attack, who was today shot and killed by police fire in the Skarbeek area of ​​Brussels, is named – according to the Le Monde newspaper – Abdesalem Lasuet. He was Tunisian, aged 45, arrived in Belgium in 2019, submitted an asylum claim which was rejected in 2020 and was reportedly known to Belgian authorities for illegal acts, but not for terrorist acts.

President Macron, yesterday from Tirana, Albania, he expressed France’s solidarity with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croix, while today he told reporters that all European states are threatened by the return of Islamic terrorism. The French president underlined that “we must learn to live in a vigilance society”, stressing that otherwise rights would have to be abolished, something that is not desirable. In the same vein, French Prime Minister Bourne said everyone’s thoughts are with the victims and their families.

Meanwhile France is still on high alert after last Friday’s terrorist attack in the city of Arras and the killing of a French teacher inside the school by a young Islamist. This morning, the Palace of Versailles was evacuated again after reports of a bomb being planted, while the mobilization of the French police forces is high in view of the football match between France and Scotland that takes place in the evening in the city of Lille, France. At the same time, as announced by the Minister of the Interior of France, Gérard Darmarin, the police force deployed on the border between France and Belgium has been doubled and border controls have been reinstated. Also today at noon, the French Foreign Ministry announced that the number of French citizens who lost their lives in Israel now stands at 21, while for another 11 French citizens there is no information on their whereabouts and they are considered missing.

Finally, at the level of French political life, the leader of the far-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen said that the return of Islamic terrorism in Europe is not due to the shortcomings of the Intelligence Services, but to the lack of political will to deal with it. As far as the left is concerned, the difference of opinion regarding the conflict between Israel and Hamas is widening. Socialist Party Secretary Olivier Faure has said that his party is considering a “moratorium” on its participation in the alliance of left-wing parties, following the refusal of MPs from the Insubordinate France party to label Hamas a terrorist organization. The head of Insubordinate France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the occasion of this statement, accused the French socialists of aiming to break with the other parties of the alliance.