Macron: We are attacked for our French values ​​and we will not give them up

President Emmanuel Macron.

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President Emmanuel Macron announced today, Thursday, that France will "not compromise" on any of the French values, especially "freedom of belief or non-belief," denouncing an "Islamic terrorist attack" on a church in Nice that left three people dead.

"We are being attacked for the sake of our values," said Macron, after praising the police who intervened to arrest the attacker in Nice (southeast).

He called on the people to "unity" and "not to submit to a sense of terror," announcing the increase in the number of soldiers in "Operation Santinil" from 3000 to seven thousand, in order to protect places of worship, especially with the approach of the Catholic All Saints' Day on Sunday.

Macron indicated that the soldiers will be deployed to "protect schools" as students return to lessons next Monday after the fall vacation.

The French government decided to raise the alert to the level of "emergency to confront an aggression", which is the highest level of preparedness within the framework of the "Vigibirat" plan, which provides for the protection of territories.

The French President affirmed "the support of the entire nation for the Catholics of France and abroad," recalling the "assassination of Father (Jacques) Hamel", who was killed in his church in Saint-Etienne de Rouvray near Rouen in the summer of 2016.

"The whole nation stands and will stand by your side so that the free exercise of religion continues in our country," he said.

The French president added, "It is very clear that France is under attack," noting that "at the same time, a French consular post was attacked in Jeddah and arrests were being made on our lands."

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