Man charged over plot to assassinate Emmanuel Macron
Prosecutors claim man planned to shoot French President on Bastille Day
A 23-year-old man has been charged with plotting to kill Emmanuel Macron during next week's Bastille Day parade.
Prosecutors in Paris told CNN he was aligned to the "extreme right" and wanted to murder the French President, as well as "blacks, Arabs, Jews and homosexuals".
In what the London Evening Standard described as a "Day of the Jackal-style plot", the man planned to shoot Macron with a Kalashnikov assault rifle while the politician took the salute at the Bastille Day celebrations on 14 July.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
US President Donald Trump will be among the guests of honour at the ceremony.
The man has been charged with plotting to commit a terrorist act after coming to the attention of the security services monitoring a video games forum, where he mentioned his search for a weapon.
Police said it was too early to say if he was linked to a wider network.
Bastille Day is the most important date in France's ceremonial calendar. It commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, sparking the start of the French Revolution, and was also the setting for Frederick Forsyth's 1967 novel The Day of the Jackal, which portrays the attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle.
In 2002, Maxime Brunerie, a neo-Nazi, fired at President Jacques Chirac during the Bastille Day parade, reports RMC radio. He was sentenced to ten years in prison before being released in 2009.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Four key tax changes to prepare for in April
The Explainer With time running out, a last-minute checklist could help you make the most of your allowances
By Marc Shoffman, The Week UK Published
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Katespiracy: is the media to blame?
Talking Point Public statement about cancer diagnosis followed weeks of wild speculation and conspiracy theories
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Why are kidnappings in Nigeria on the rise again?
Today's Big Question Hundreds of children and displaced people are missing as kidnap-for-ransom 'bandits' return
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
The #MeToo movements around the world
The Explainer French men have been sharing stories of abuse in the latest calling out of sexual assault and harassment
By The Week Staff Published
-
Deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies hang over Sydney's Mardi Gras
The Explainer Police officer, the former partner of TV presenter victim, charged with two counts of murder after turning himself in
By Austin Chen, The Week UK Published
-
How the idyllic Galapagos Islands became staging post in world drug trade
Under the radar Ecuador's crackdown on gang violence forces drug traffickers into Pacific routes to meet cocaine demand
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Armed gangs, prison breaks and on-air hostages: how Ecuador was plunged into crisis
The Explainer Gangs launch deadly revenge after president declares state of emergency following escape of feared drug boss from prison
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Ecuador tips toward chaos amid prison breaks, armed TV takeover
Speed Read New President Daniel Noboa authorized the military to 'neutralize' powerful drug-linked gangs after they unleashed violence and terror across Ecuador
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Prague shooting: student kills 14 people at university
Speed reads Police believe suspect, who killed himself, may have shot his father before carrying out mass murder
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Death in rural France: a murder that inflamed a nation
Under the radar
By The Week UK Published