Easter: 13,500 law enforcement officers mobilized to “protect religious services”, announces Darmanin

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP 12:14 p.m., March 31, 2024

Gérald Darmanin announced this Sunday the mobilization of 13,500 law enforcement officers in nearly 4,530 places of worship throughout France in order to "protect Catholic and Protestant services" for the Easter festival, during a trip to Pontoise, in Val-d’Oise. “The police are present throughout the national territory from Good Friday until tomorrow Easter Monday to protect services in an extremely difficult context where terrorism can strike,” declared the Minister of the Interior during from a press point on the square in front of Saint-Maclou Cathedral in Pontoise.

“There are 13,500 police officers, gendarmes and Sentinel soldiers who are deployed this morning in 4,350 Christian, Protestant and Catholic places of worship, throughout France in France and overseas,” he detailed, recalling that “the Christians have been widely affected" in recent years by terrorist attacks. He notably referred to the attack on the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice which left three people dead in October 2020.

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Two attacks foiled since the start of the year

On Thursday, Gérald Darmanin asked prefects to deploy police in front of all Catholic churches and Protestant temples for Easter this weekend, according to a note and an SMS consulted by AFP. The "very high" level of the terrorist threat as well as the "persistence of international tensions", notably with the war in Gaza and the attack in Moscow "require the maintenance of extreme vigilance" for the Easter holidays, wrote the minister in a note sent to the prefects.

Two planned attacks have been foiled in France since the start of the year. One concerned a planned "violent action against a Catholic religious building" by a man "obviously committed to jihadist ideology", indicated the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (Pnat). Aged 62, this man was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention on March 8 for “criminal association with the aim of preparing crimes against people”, according to the Pnat. Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Christ for Christians, is celebrated on Sunday by Catholics and Protestants, and on May 5 by the Orthodox.