En Marche presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron slammed Marine Le Pen’s proposal to arrest radical Islamists saying it would be counter-productive to intelligence efforts.
Mr Macron took direct exception to Le Pen’s comments Friday morning when the Front National presidential candidate called for the arrest of all known radical Islamists and the deportation of Islamists without French citizenship Le Figaro reports. Le Pen made the comments after reports that the shooter of three police in Paris Thursday night had been known to police as an Islamic extremist.
“The goal is an intelligence goal,” Macron said. ” If you put them all in jail, first of all, it is not in accordance with the law,” he added, “The goal is to follow them. The police must be able to work in the best possible way.”
Macron also hit out at comments made by Le Pen earlier this week in which she claimed that under a Le Pen presidency none of the major attacks in the last five years would have happened. “I heard a few days ago Ms Le Pen say ‘with me, there would have been no such attack.’ No, zero risk does not exist, we live and we will live permanently with the threat of Terrorism,” he said.
The independent candidate, who is the youngest in the presidential race at 39-years-old, has been accused of lacking experience. He refuted the allegation and claimed that Le Pen’s experience was professing “untruths” and “irresponsibility.”
Regarding his other rival Francois Fillon, Macron said the former Prime Minister, “essentially worked to remove posts, both in the army, in the police and in the gendarmerie, and dismantled the territorial intelligence.”
Overall Macron’s reaction to the terror attack Thursday has been what he’s called a “spirit of responsibility in this extreme period” and described terrorism as, “part of our daily lives for the years to come.”
In most recent polls Macron leads the presidential race by a slim margin with rival anti-mass migration candidate Marine Le Pen trailing by one or two percentage points. Recently Republican candidate Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon have also gained support narrowing the race between the top four candidates.
Even if Macron is able to win the French presidency it remains uncertain how effectively he will be able to govern the country as his party En Marche has no representation in the French parliament. The next French parliamentary election will be held in June where MAcron’s movement hopes to win seats and the Front National of Marine Le Pen are expected to increase their representation.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart.com
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