France looks toward weekend presidential vote after deadly shooting

PARIS // France began picking itself up Friday from another deadly shooting claimed by ISIL, with president Francois Hollande convening the government’s security council and his would-be successors in the presidential election campaign treading carefully before voting this weekend.

On the iconic avenue in the heart of Paris, municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn to wash down the pavement where the assault happened, a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France in little over two years. Delivery lorries did their early morning rounds; everything would have seemed normal were it not for the row of TV lorries parked up along the boulevard that is a must-visit for tourists.

Tourists were back on the Champs Elysees early in the day with a mixture of shock and defiance, less than 24 hours after an extremist shot dead a policeman on the world-famous avenue on the eve of the election. Some took snaps of shop windows now peppered with bullet holes.

“I needed to get out, to come back here and see the sunshine and that everything was OK,” said Lebanese tourist Zeina Bitar, 45, who was shopping on the boulevard with her children when the gunman struck.

Nearby, a police officer laid a white rose at the site where the shooter felled his comrade with an automatic weapon, unleashing a firefight in which the assailant was killed and two other officers were wounded.

“We heard the shots and people were running in every direction. My children were in tears,” said Ms Bitar. “But people were calm, we were well treated and they gave us hot chocolate.”

One of the key questions was if, and how, the attack that killed one police officer and wounded three other people might affect voting intentions. The risk for the main candidates was that misjudging the public mood, making an ill-perceived gesture or comment, could damage their chances. With polling just two days away, and campaigning banned from Friday at midnight, they would have no time to recover before polls open on Sunday.

Candidates cancelled or rescheduled final campaign events. .

Pascale Saad, 42, also from Lebanon, said she was worried about the effects the attack would have on France’s presidential election starting with its first round of voting on Sunday.

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen on Sunday,” she said. “I’m afraid that things will degenerate and that people will all vote for Marine Le Pen.”

The far-right presidential candidate, who is riding high in the polls, is seen as the most hardline on the issue of terror attacks and advocates harsh limits on immigration.

“I knew there were terrorism attacks in France last year, but I thought it was over,” said Indian tourist Chaintnya Veeraghanta, 25.

More than 230 people have been killed in extremist attacks in France since early 2015, leading to a ramping up of security, with thousands of troops deployed to patrol key sites.

Eric Winkler, 51, an American visiting the French capital from Boston, said, “It was scary. We heard the shots so we ran to our hotel ... and found out it was terrorism by watching the news.”

But he and his 16-year-old daughter Hailey took it in their stride. “It’s happening all over the world, also in America,” he said. “We have to deal with it, they’re not going to stop us from living and doing what we want to do.”

Scottish tourist Lesly Douglas, 55, had mixed feelings: “We’re convinced that Paris is the safest place in the world, but of course we were scared seeing the policemen with their guns.”

But her 62-year-old husband Michael was adamant that the couple would visit the French capital “for years to come”, adding: “Vive Paris!”

* Agence France-Presse