A new poll, conducted by the polling firm OpinionWay for France's political science research center Cevipof, found that nearly one-third of French people (31 percent) said they felt "weary" and used the words "morose" (29 percent) and "mistrustful" (28 percent) to express their feelings after a year of terror.
France has been on maximum alert after being rocked by a series of terror attacks that have pushed intelligence services and the police to the limit. The 2015 attacks began on January 7, when Said and Cherif Kouachi forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris and shot 11 people dead, wounding 11 others, before fleeing and killing a policeman outside.
The shootings were followed by another hostage-taking event involving Amedy Coulibaly who was a close friend of the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly entered and attacked people in the kosher food mini-supermarket in Porte de Vincennes, where he murdered four Jewish hostages and held fifteen other hostages.
Then on November 13, gunmen and suicide bombers launched a series of attacks at the Stade de France, the Bataclan music venue and cafes and restaurants killing 130 people in the deadliest assault on French soil since the Second World War.
Democracy Not Working
The Cevipof study found that while 81 percent of French people expressed confidence in the country's army, and 75 percent the police, confidence in politicians was low.
The study revealed a lack of faith in the French political system with 67 percent saying: "Democracy in France works 'not well' or 'not at all well.' "
The result is likely to reflect the view that, while police and the army can move to protect lives, politicians are being seen as being impotent in the face of global terror threats — and, possibly, the refugee crisis.
