French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has come under increasing pressure over his handling of a knife attack in Paris in which four people were killed, the latest in a series of incidents that have damaged the credibility of one of Emmanuel Macron’s top lieutenants.
Castaner admitted on France Inter radio on Monday there were flaws in the system of monitoring those who display signs of radicalization.
The Interior Minister said that there were enough “warning signals” from the Paris knifeman “to start an investigation” and that the attack was a sign of a “state malfunction.”
French media revealed on Sunday that the knife attacker — who killed four people within Paris’ police HQ — had shown signs of radicalization. The suspect had contact with “certain individuals of the Salafist movement,” the prosecutor in charge of the investigation said, calling the attack “premeditated.”
According to a counter-terrorism memo dated October 5, colleagues observed unusual behavior from the 45-year-old IT specialist in the wake of the January 2015 attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The memo reveals that the attacker, who had worked at police headquarters for more than 15 years, converted to Islam in 2015.
Castaner will be questioned in the Senate next Thursday about his handling of the investigation and some opposition lawmakers have called on the minister to resign. Guillaume Larrivé, from the center-right Les Républicains party, accused Castaner of failing in his duties and called for him to step down as a “matter of national security.”
“Enough is enough. The interior minister is not capable of assuming his responsibilities. He cannot remain in office. This is a matter of national security,” Larrivé said.
But Castaner told the TV channel TF1 on Sunday: “Does the question of my resignation arise? The answer is no.”
Castaner has been in his job for just under a year. He has been heavily criticized for his handling of the Yellow Jackets protests, especially for the violence used by police against demonstrators. In May, the minister admitted that he should not have accused May Day protesters of “attacking” a Paris hospital. Protesters insisted they were seeking refuge from riot police using teargas, and were not targeting the hospital.
The minister’s situation wasn’t helped when a video surfaced of him dancing, drinking and kissing in a swanky Paris nightclub hours before a Yellow Jackets protest.
The spotlight also shone on Castaner after the death of Steve Maia Caniço, a 24-year-old who drowned in the Loire River near his hometown of Nantes after a confrontation with police at a music festival. Caniço disappeared on the night of June 21, after authorities used teargas to disperse concert-goers whom the prefect of Nantes later claimed were “unmanageable” and had “probably taken drugs.” In the chaos, more than a dozen people fell into the river and were rescued. Caniço, who couldn’t swim, was not.
After an August 3 protest in Caniço’s home town, Castaner praised “the police’s engagement” at the rally and commended them for arresting “violent individuals.”