European far-right affects France’s stance on Paris attack: analysts

Far-right politics that “dominate” France also colour French authorities’ approach to incidents, preventing them from classifying as terrorism any act that was not committed by an Islamist, Algerian journalist Hakima Dahabi told Hawar News Agency in an interview on Wednesday.

The extreme right-wing movement targets persons deemed “foreigners” in Europe and France in particular, and threatens social peace, Egyptian analyst Bahgat al Obeidi added.

Meanwhile, the fact that the Paris attacker was not under constant surveillance by French authorities despite his criminal past and that he was released shortly after his arrest “raised questions about the French role in the crime”, Hawar cited them as saying.

French officials, including President Emmanuel Macron, have widely condemned the attack but cannot look past the racialised component in the insults, al Obeidi said.

France can never “deal with terrorism as defined by the United Nations”, because “some operations that are classified as terrorist involve intelligence agencies, including France”, Dahabi added.

Kurdish parties are concentrating on political motivations behind the attack and reject the allegations that the massacre is merely a racist attack.