Knife attack in Annecy: "The French are waiting for answers," says Ségolène Royal

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP 06:09, June 10, 2023

A little less than 48 hours after the fright, emotion remains strong in France. This Thursday shortly before 10 am, an individual armed with a knife assaults several people in a park in Annecy. Four young children were injured, two of them seriously. The suspect was then quickly arrested. Present on site in the aftermath of the tragedy, Emmanuel Macron was reassuring about the evolution of the state of health of children, indicating that the news was "positive". Still, the gray areas surrounding this drama and especially its author, remain numerous.

Questioned at the microphone of Lenaïg Monnier this Saturday, former minister Ségolène Royal first expressed her emotion. "It was also as a mother of four that I felt this horror thinking that it could very well have happened to them. And what could be more appalling than preying on infants?" she said.

"We shouldn't be able to walk around like this all over Europe"

The former presidential candidate in 2007 then evoked the various questions raised by this attack. The suspect, a 31-year-old Syrian, had been granted refugee status in Sweden. If her presence on French territory was therefore not irregular, Ségolène Royal takes a dim view of the European career of the accused. "How can there be such freedom of movement at the bottom?" she asked Europe 1. He added: "We should not be able to walk around like this all over Europe when we can represent a possible danger."

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Although he was already granted asylum in Sweden, Abdalmasih H. had made another application in France which this time had been refused. A potentially flammable situation according to Ségolène Royal. "This is not the first time that there has been an assault by an individual who is denied political refugee status. He comes to France to have a more advantageous status, he is refused and he goes mad." Hence the need to exercise special vigilance, according to the former minister. "We must monitor them at least, those to whom we say no."

Asylum reform under discussion at European level

To achieve this, Ségolène Royal offers tracks. "They need to be checked, maybe they need to be returned to the country that gave them asylum. It's repetitive and you have to find an answer. The French are waiting for answers," she concluded. On Thursday, a meeting was held in Luxembourg between European interior ministers to unblock the difficult reform of migration policy at European level. The latter could become more restrictive in a context of strong breakthrough by the far right in several member countries.