Emmanuel Macron has been in office for barely two months, and already some are out for his blood. As CNN reports, a man has been charged with plotting to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron on Bastille Day during a visit by US President Donald Trump. Investigators said the man planned to attack Macron on July 14, during a parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where Trump is set to be a guest of honor.
News of the alleged plot surfaced a week after Macron invited Trump for the Bastille Day visit. That invitation was extended during a phone conversation between the two leaders about combating ISIS. The two leaders are also both expected to attend this weekend’s G-20 summit in Hamburg.
According to CNN, the plotter, who is now in police custody, is a 23-year-old "far-right nationalist who told police that he wanted to make a political statement by killing Macron." The plotter also told police that he wanted to kill blacks, Arabs, Jews and homosexuals. In other words, a perfect scapegoat to extend the French emergency law just a little longer.
Security forces were alerted to the plot by users of a video game site, after the suspect posted about allegedly wanting to buy a Kalashnikov-type weapon to commit an attack.
The suspect, who was left unnamed by both CNN and Reuters, was charged with terror-related activity last year, according to CNN, though it didn’t elaborate on the exact nature of these charges.
However, Reuters said the suspect was unemployed, had mental health problems and was sentenced in 2016 for making comments in favor of terrorism. Though the threat is being treated by authorities as credible, the feasibility of such an attack remains very much in doubt. Security at this year's Bastille Day parade on the Champs Elysees is likely to be even tighter than usual given the expected presence of U.S. President Donald Trump.