Man charged for plot to kill France’s Macron

A MAN has been charged with plotting to assassinate President Emmanuel Macron at France’s Bastille Day military parade which the French leader is set to attend with US President Donald Trump, a judicial source said yesterday.

The 23-year-old is a suspected far-right extremist, who told investigators he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Paris, a source said.

The man said he also wanted to attack “Muslims, Jews, blacks and homosexuals”.

Police arrested him at his Paris home, in the northwest suburb of Argenteuil, after being alerted by users of an internet chatroom, where the suspect allegedly said he wanted to buy a firearm.

Three knives were found in his vehicle and analysis of his computer found that he had conducted internet searches as part of his plot, the source said. He was charged at the weekend with plotting to commit a terrorist act.

The man had already been convicted for condoning terrorism last year and sentenced to three years in prison, of which 18 months were suspended.

Macron, France’s youngest president at 39, invited Trump as his guest of honour for the parade, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 – the start of the French Revolution and a turning point in world history.

The two presidents have radically different political views and interests, but Macron is intent on trying to build a relationship with Trump and has warned against efforts to isolate him at a meeting of G20 nations this coming weekend.

The July 14 assassination plan recalls the plot of The Day of the Jackal, a book by spy writer Frederick Forsyth in which a hitman attempts to kill former French president Charles de Gaulle, the target of numerous real-life plots.

On Bastille Day in 2002, then president Jacques Chirac was the target of an assassination attempt.

Macron has frequently held talks with protesters, but France remains in a state of emergency after a string of attacks since 2015.

The July 14 parade takes place on the Champs-Elysees, the site of two recent attacks on police.

Late last month, a man drove a car laden with weapons and gas canisters into a police van on the world-famous avenue.

In April, a known extremist shot dead a policeman on the avenue just days before the first round of the presidential election.