Leading candidates on the right in France’s presidential vote have been accused of using the killing of a policeman in Paris for political ends.<\/p>\n
The far right’s Marine Le Pen pledged to expel radical Islamists while the centre-right’s Francois Fillon talked of fighting “Islamist totalitarianism”.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused Mr Fillon and Ms Le Pen of cynically exploiting the attack.<\/p>\n
Friday is the last day of campaigning before Sunday’s election.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen, Mr Fillon and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron all cancelled their final campaign events as a mark of respect for the policeman killed on Thursday.<\/p>\n
However, radical leftist Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, who also condemned the attack, pressed on with his campaigning, saying “the violent must be shown that they will not have the last word against republicans”.<\/p>\n
In an attack claimed by so-called Islamic State, a gunman shot dead a policeman on the French capital’s famous Champs Elysees Avenue, wounding two other officers before being killed by security forces.<\/p>\n
The gunman struck as the 11 candidates took part in their last TV appearance together before the election, a tightly fought contest to be followed by a run-off on 7 May.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls suggest Mr Macron has a narrow lead over Ms Le Pen, with Mr Fillon and Mr M\u00e9lenchon close behind.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN), called for foreigners on security watch lists to be expelled and for national border controls to be reinstated immediately.<\/p>\n
“We must fight barbarism – none of the French governments for the past 10 years has done enough,” Ms Le Pen said.<\/p>\n
Speaking of “incredible lapses in the justice system”, she said that both the current government and its predecessor had done everything to make France lose the war on terrorism.<\/p>\n
Mr Fillon, the former prime minister who is standing for the Republican party, said France needed to show its enemies it was united and without fear.<\/p>\n
He implicitly criticised the Socialist government when he said that some had not “taken the full measure of the evil”, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.<\/p>\n
He himself promised an “iron-fisted” approach.<\/p>\n
Mr Cazeneuve criticised Mr Fillon’s record on security when he was prime minister and accused Ms Le Pen of seeking to “exploit fear without any shame”.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leading candidates on the right in France’s presidential vote have been accused of using the killing of a policeman in Paris for political ends. The far right’s Marine Le Pen pledged to expel radical Islamists while the centre-right’s Francois Fillon talked of fighting “Islamist totalitarianism”. Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused Mr Fillon and Ms Le […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n