Contact Us

French state's failure to assist poor fueled terrorism, Macron says

AFP WORLD
Published November 14,2017
Subscribe

French President Emmanuel Macron says the state fueled homegrown terrorism by abandoning its poorest neighborhoods, and is promising tough and "sometimes authoritarian" new measures to combat the problem.

The pledge is part of a multibillion-euro plan that Macron is laying out Tuesday focusing on suburban housing projects plagued by crime and joblessness.

Macron was unusually harsh in his criticism of previous governments, saying radicalization took root because the state abdicated its responsibility in impoverished public housing, and terrorist preachers filled the void.

He said his government will present about 15 measures to fight radicalization and will close "unacceptable structures" that promote terrorism and "try to fracture us."

Several Daesh terrorist attackers who have targeted France in recent years were raised in troubled French social housing and radicalized here.