A man armed with a knife sowed terror, Thursday, June 8 in the morning, in a park on the shores of Lake Annecy, seriously injuring several children, before being arrested. Six injured including four children aged 22 months to 3 years who are in a state of “absolute emergency”.
The perpetrator, a Syrian who has refugee status granted in Sweden, was taken into custody. At a press conference attended by the prime minister, the public prosecutor of Annecy, Line Bonnet-Mathis, declared that there was for the moment “no apparent terrorist motive”. The attack sparked strong reactions among politicians.
Emmanuel Macron denounced an “attack of absolute cowardice”. “Children and an adult are between life and death. The Nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with them as well as their families and the rescuers mobilized, ”wrote the head of state on Twitter.
“We are shocked by this heinous and unspeakable act,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who visited Annecy during the day. “When it affects children, I think everyone is affected deep within [himself] and today our whole country is in shock”, she reacted during a point press in Annecy with the prosecutor of Haute-Savoie.
The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, spoke on Twitter of “the most absolute horror” in Annecy and thanked the police “for their rapid intervention”. The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, meanwhile denounced on the same network: “To attack young children is to commit the unspeakable. The Annecy schoolchildren “were immediately brought to safety”, he also assured.
“Once again, our children are the target of increasing violence in our society. I thank the police who arrested the attacker. This act cannot go unpunished,” wrote Charlotte Caubel, Secretary of State for Children.
This tragedy caused great emotion in the National Assembly where a minute of silence was observed at the request of the president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, “for them, for their families”, after this “very serious attack”. For his part, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher (Les Républicains, LR), asked: “How can we attack children with such cruelty? The Republic is touched in its heart. »
Eric Ciotti, president of LR, reported “huge emotion and great anger! “. “The investigation will determine the conditions, but it appears that the perpetrator has the same profile that is often found in these attacks. We will have to draw all the consequences without naivety, with strength and lucidity, ”he added to the Assembly.
The national secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), Marine Tondelier, also expressed “all [her] support for the victims and the families”, expressing “unspeakable horror” and calling for “recollection” and “respect”. . In Paris, the capital’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, posted on Twitter a video of a minute’s silence observed at the Paris Council “to mark her support and solidarity with the victims”.
“Our hearts are in pieces having to go through it. To the children our painful affection. To the parents all our distressed compassion, ”reacted the leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon. ” How is it possible ? Attacking little ones! Hit them with a knife! “, he added to the Assembly. ” The horror. Emotion and anger, ”wrote the boss of the socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud, still on Twitter.
The president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, where the facts took place, Laurent Wauquiez (LR), for his part denounced “the horror, again”. “This attack on children is the pinnacle of abomination,” he added, thanking the “police officers for their courage in apprehending the assailant.”
“Dread and horror”, reacted for her part Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (RN). “After the tragedy in Annecy, it is our whole migration policy (…) that we must question,” denounced Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, still on Twitter. “Once again, the Schengen area demonstrates its inability to protect us,” protested Julien Odoul, RN deputy for Yonne.
“In the hours that will follow (…), they will call us waste pickers”, lambasted in turn Eric Zemmour. “You have the right to refuse to see our country sink,” the President of Reconquest! continued, adding, “You have the right to be angry. You have the right to refuse these francocides. “The time for reckoning will come,” wrote Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, vice-president of Reconquête!.
Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance deputies, was accused by the opposition of “recovering” the tragedy of Annecy, after calling for “humanity” to take over the debates concerning pension reform. The attack came as the National Assembly was debating a proposal to repeal retirement at age 64.
“Being at the moment in the hemicycle with a kind of battle of rag pickers on the admissibility or not of amendments seems to us to be totally out of step with the dread which in my opinion is overwhelming our country”, declared to the press the elected from Yvelines. “We want to say our total solidarity, that our thoughts today are only with the families and those who are by their side,” she added. And to insist: “This is what we should remember today, to have humanity. »
The oppositions battling in the Assembly reacted strongly to these remarks. “Absolutely heinous instrumentalization. Dignity is clearly incompatible with macronism, ”denounced Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI, on Twitter. The “rebellious” Alma Dufour also felt that it was a “disgusting recovery”.
“Do you have any honor left