Vigilance for Easter celebrations. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, asked the prefects to deploy police in front of all Catholic churches and Protestant temples this weekend. The “very high” level of the terrorist threat as well as the “persistence of international tensions”, notably with the war in Gaza and the attack in Moscow “require the maintenance of extreme vigilance” for the Easter holidays, writes the minister in a note sent this Thursday to the prefects.
As he generally does on the occasion of various religious holidays, the minister asks them to “mobilize the police” to “provide vigilance and security advice” to local religious authorities. “In particular, it will be necessary to insist” on the “visual control of incoming flows for the purposes of detecting suspicious individuals” or to pay “particular attention” to “vehicles parked near places of assembly or worship”, writes Gérald Darmanin.
A systematic “physical presence”
The minister adds, in a handwritten note, the instruction to organize a “physical presence” of the police, “systematically”, in front of “all” churches and temples, in particular during services on Friday and this weekend. The minister doubled this instruction with an SMS to the prefects.
Also read Vigipirate in “emergency attack” after Moscow: the different faces of the terrorist threat in France
Two planned attacks have been foiled in France since the start of the year. One concerned a planned “violent action against a Catholic religious building” by a man “clearly committed to jihadist ideology”, indicated the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT). Aged 62, this man was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention on March 8 for “criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing crimes against people”, according to the PNAT.
Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Christ for Christians, is celebrated on Sunday by Catholics and Protestants, and on May 5 by the Orthodox.