Hollande demands new state powers

NEW powers to allow house arrests and raids to prevent acts of terrorism are to be debated by MPs and senators.

In a speech to parliament, President Hollande said he wanted to prolong the current state of emergency for three months, in what he described as a “war” against jihadist extremism.

The president told MPs and senators that France would intensify its actions in Syria and aimed to “destroy” ISIS - step up in rhetoric from President Barack Obama who has limited his language to “contain”.

He said that Syria had become “the biggest fabricator of terrorists that the world had known” and added that he had asked the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution to mark their common wish to fight terrorism.

“We are not engaged in a war of civilisations, these assassins do not have any,” he told members of both houses of parliament at a meeting held in Versailles.

A new bill will appear before parliament on Wednesday and will include:

A three-month extension to the current state of emergency (which can currently only last 12 days)
New powers for house arrest and raids to prevent terror attacks
5,000 new police officers and gendarmes over the next two years
2,500 extra positions in the justice department and no reduction in defence staffing until 2019.

Hollande said that the new positions meant a total of 10,000 posts would be created during his presidency, bringing the security forces back up to their 2007 levels.

See also: What does state of emergency mean?
Photo:wiki/Paris 16