Fears, scars of extremism loom over French ‘presidential vote’

PARIS, April 15, (AP): The scars of extremist violence run deep in today’s France, and the threat of new attacks hangs heavy over the upcoming presidential election. Voters will cast ballots under a state of emergency that is increasingly stitched into the fabric of French life.

Yet terrorism is not the No. 1 campaign issue for France’s two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7; jobs are.

Georges Salines wants to make sure the next president doesn’t forget how extremist attacks have damaged France. His daughter Lola was killed when Islamic State fighters stormed Paris’ Bataclan theater in November 2015, the deadliest of several attacks to hammer this country since French voters last chose a leader in 2012.

“Mr or Madame President, this question of terrorism is very important, very difficult and we request a comprehensive approach,” he says. “You have to act all the time, from the time when the person is in danger of becoming a terrorist to the aftermath of an attack ... you have to act at the international level, the national level, at the local level of the families and even individuals.”

Lola, a 28-year-old who edited children’s books, played the ukulele and adored roller derby, went to the Bataclan for a concert on Nov 13, 2015, and never came home. In the chaos of the attack’s ensuing hours, her father and brother launched a desperate search for her on social media. Today, she rests in Paris’ Pere-Lachaise cemetery.

Extremist attacks on France have claimed more than 230 other lives since 2015. They include cartoonists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher market, children watching holiday fireworks on the French Riviera, an elderly priest celebrating Mass in Normandy, young people dancing to music.

“These are tragedies of enormous importance. And behind one victim, there are many, many other indirect casualties, because we all grieve and suffer the loss of our loved ones,” Dr. Salines told The Associated Press in his medical office. He now heads an association, called November 13-Fraternity and Truth, that has sent a letter to France’s 11 presidential candidates asking them to lay out their counterterrorism plans.

Those candidates will all compete in the April 23 first-round vote, with the top two vote-getters moving on to the presidential runoff on May 7.

Already two attackers have tried to target Paris sites during this presidential campaign — one at the Louvre Museum, the other at Orly Airport. Other, more deadly attacks have hit countries around Europe in recent months.