French Prime Minister Manuel Valls was booed this morning as he attended a memorial event for the victims of the Bastille Day attack.
Mr Valls was attending a minute’s silence in the city of Nice when the large crowd vented their anger at him, loudly jeering when he appeared alongside other politicians.
The reaction comes after he told the French public to “learn to live with terrorism” following the country’s 12th Islamist incident since January 2015.
He said on Friday: “Times have changed and we should learn to live with terrorism. We have to show solidarity and collective calm. France has been hit in its soul on the 14 July, our national day.
“They wanted to attack the unity of the French nation.”
Numerous videos show the crowd loudly booing Mr Valls, with some shouting insults at the Prime Minister and calling for his resignation.
Nice : “Démission”, le Premier ministre Manuel Valls hué avant et après
la minute de silence à Nice.pic.twitter.com/YVSjK8fvFg— Infos Françaises (@InfosFrancaises) July 18, 2016
Salopard va! Salopard!! crie un homme à Manuel Valls pic.twitter.com/rmF8ZpiwT6
— jules darmanin (@JulesDrmnn) July 18, 2016
More than 80 people were killed on Thursday night after a lone Islamist drove a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. The attacker was later identified as Mohamed Bouhlel, a 31-year-old man of Tunisian origin who had been a career criminal before becoming rapidly radicalised.
Currently, 85 people are still in hospital, with over half regarded as being in a “serious” condition and 18 “critical”.
The attack is the latest in a series of Islamist incidents in France. In January 2015, gunmen opened fire on the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people. A gunman then took hostages at a Jewish supermarket the following day, resulting in four deaths.
In November, the French capital Paris suffered Europe’s worst terror attack for a decade when nine men detonated explosives near the Stade de France stadium and opened fire on people at bars and restaurants, including the Bataclan concert hall. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 130 people.
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