15 November 2016, 12:42 GMT
PARIS (Sputnik) — The French government will propose to the parliament the extension of the state of emergency, introduced in France after the November 2015 terrorist attacks and set to expire in January, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday.
“We will suggest to the parliament to prolong the emergency state… because a threat level remains and we are approaching the pre-election period, while terrorism directly threatens democracy,” Valls said, speaking in the parliament.
Valls stressed that French law enforcement bodies regularly detain jihadists and thwart terrorist attacks across the country.
France has been on high security alert since a string of gun and bomb attacks by Islamists killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015. The state of emergency was prolonged until the end of January 2017, following a truck attack in the city of Nice, which claimed 84 lives.
The French presidential election is scheduled for April and May 2017.
