French police yesterday shot and killed a 29-year-old Algerian citizen who had tried to set fire to a synagogue in Rouen, the capital of Normandy, by throwing a Molotov cocktail inside. The individual, an irregular immigrant with a deportation order from the country, threatened the officers with an iron bar and a knife with a 25-centimeter blade.
According to the prosecutor of Rouen, Frédéric Teillet, the reaction of the agent who shot, up to five times, was justified as self-defense. Four bullets hit the body of the victim, who died before he could be taken to a hospital. It was later learned that his asylum application had been rejected based on the claim that he was ill. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office did not take over the case, which suggests another motive for the action.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who went to Rouen after a few hours, praised the brave attitude of the 24-year-old gendarme who made use of the weapon. He did not question his conduct but quite the contrary. The minister said that he was “fed up” with the systematic trials to which the forces of order are subjected in this type of situation. “I want to congratulate him and he will be decorated by the Republic”, he added.
The mayor of the Norman capital, the socialist Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, was appalled by the events. “An attack against the Israeli community is an attack against the entire national community”, he said to the press.
The Rouen episode takes place in a context of enormous tension in France due to student protests, highly critical of Israel, over the Gaza war. Authorities are concerned about the sharp increase in anti-Semitism since October in a country that is home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities. The fire of a synagogue has high symbolism and stirs up the worst demons of the continent’s darkest era.
The latest attack also shows the vulnerability of France, even if the attack is due to a simple lone wolf, when there are just over two months left until the opening of the Olympic Games in Paris. The incident coincides with a growing sense of insecurity that conservative and far-right parties are taking advantage of to accuse President Macron and his Government of a lack of authority and deterioration of public order. This type of news, like the recent fatal assault on a prison van – very close to Rouen, by the way – can have an impact on the European elections on June 9.
