In the middle of a debate in France about more control of immigration and asylum, a Syrian refugee of the Christian religion and armed with a knife yesterday seriously injured four young children and two adults in a park in the Alpine town of Annecy , in the Haute-Savoie department. The first investigations by the Prosecutor’s Office ruled out a terrorist motive.
The attack caused a deep shock and, at first, revived the fear that it was a new jihadist action. In recent years, France has been one of the European countries most punished by Islamist terrorism. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and the head of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, immediately traveled to Annecy to express their solidarity with the victims and show their particular revulsion at an attack of this nature.
The perpetrator, Abdalmasih H., a citizen of Syrian nationality, 31 years old, who was dressed in black, obtained political refugee status in Sweden ten years ago, but had also applied, in past, asylum in France, something that European laws do not allow. According to the prosecutor of Annecy, Line Bonnet-Mathis, this is a person with no fixed address and no judicial or psychiatric history. Charges will be filed against him for attempted murder. According to the newspaper Le Figaro, Abdalmasih H. is married to a Swedish woman and is the father of a three-year-old boy.
A video revealed by the AFP agency showed that the attacker, while acting, shouted, in English: “In the name of Jesus Christ!”. He was also wearing a cross when he was arrested by the police.
The injured children are between 22 months and three years old. One is English, and another, Dutch, from families who were on holiday in the area. One of the adults was also accidentally shot by one of the policemen who, in a few minutes, went to the park to arrest the assailant, who was slightly injured.
One of the witnesses to the attack was a former football player, Anthony Le Tallec, who served in the military at Liverpool. I happened to be jogging in the park. Le Tallec saw the police running after the assailant. After dodging him, he stabbed an old man. The victims were taken to local hospitals and in neighboring Switzerland.
Borne referred to what had happened as a “hateful and unqualifiable act”. The Prime Minister expressed her solidarity with the families of the injured and emphasized that it took the police only a few minutes to arrest the perpetrator.
One of the first to react was the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alps region, the conservative Laurent Wauquiez, who wondered why the individual was in France. “Questions will have to be raised”, he said. Wauquiez, former president of Els Republicans (LR, right) and former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, is among the potential candidates for the Elysée in 2027 and is already taking a position in the debates, especially on migration.
Just a few days ago, LR deputies and senators presented a bill to both chambers of Parliament to change the Constitution and allow referendums on migration, nationality and asylum policy, with the aim to harden it and drastically reduce its flow. The Republicans propose that France repeal European laws on migration and asylum, even if it stops complying with decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which would mean, if put into practice, a Frexit (the French version of Brexit), at least not partial.
Actions like yesterday fuel and exacerbate the discourse of the extreme right. Former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour posted a tweet in which he wrote: “Before, asylum seekers fled to avoid death. Now, asylum seekers are leaving their country to better kill our childrenâ€.
