France’s interior minister instructed regional governments to boost security at Christmas markets against terrorist attacks, permitting the deployment of soldiers for a “visible deterrent” if necessary.
The French government has ordered “maximum vigilance” at seasonal Christmas markets in the country, a precaution after years of the events being targeted by predominantly Mohammedan fundamentalists. While markets in Germany have been the main focus for terror attacks to date, France has seen more than its share of deadly mass-casualty terror attacks, including the 2016 Nice Attack when a cargo truck was driven through crowds on Bastile Day, a modus operandi shared with previous Christmas market attacks.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez issued a directive to regional Prefects ordering them to “strengthen security measures” because of “very high level of terrorist threat”, reports FranceInfo. He called for the “full mobilization of intelligence services in the detection, prevention, and, if necessary, thwarting of terrorist threats” which would include “a visible and deterrent presence of [police] and, where necessary, soldiers”.
Prefects were told to consider the security picture for all events “likely to bring together a large number of participants”.
While France prepares to intensify security, the urban landscape across Europe has already been considerably disfigured in the past decades by the threat of such attacks. So-called “Merkel-Lego” that has become a fact of life in every Western European city and the constant vigilance of France’s Operation Sentinel are well known enough, but worse perhaps are the areas where traditions like the Christmas market has simply died out because the cost of compliance with the new security regime is simply too great.
As reported last month, yet more German cities have cancelled their Christmas markets as defending them from attack is too expensive. A spokesman from the city of Kerpen explained: “We were informed that we would have to cordon off Stiftsplatz from all sides. At the same time, we are not receiving any financial support from the city and have to manage everything ourselves”.
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