France falls silent for Nice victims as politicians play blame game

Meanwhile, an opinion poll published on Monday suggested that confidence in the capacity of Francois Hollande’s government to combat terrorism has plummeted after Thursday night’s attack.

People gather at a makeshift memorial on Nice's famed Promenade des Anglais on July 18, 2016, to observe a minute of silence in memory of those killed in an attack on the seafront area four days before. Luca Bruno/AP PhotoShow less

NICE // France fell silent on Monday for the victims of the Nice lorry attack, but the mourning was overshadowed by politicians tearing into each other over the massacre.

A sea of people thronged the Nice promenade for the emotional minute’s silence, just days after a Tunisian attacker drove a lorry into a crowd at the same place, killing 84 people and injuring around 300.

Similar gatherings were held across the country on the last day of a three-day period of national mourning, with the minute’s silence accompanied by the ringing of church bells.

“We must not move on too quickly. We need to exorcise our demons, to talk about it, to gather together,” said Philippe Gambino, who has visited the Promenade des Anglais every day since the attack, where candles and flowers form a makeshift memorial.

Prime minister Manual Valls was booed and faced shouts of “resign” as he arrived and left the seaside promenade in Nice, in a sign of the anger and bitterness gripping France after its third major terror attack in 18 months.

Speaking ahead of the minute’s silence, nterior minister Bernard Cazeneuve defended government efforts to halt terror attacks, calling for “dignity and truth” from fiercely critical opposition politicians as the national mood soured further nine months ahead of a presidential election.

An opinion poll published on Monday suggested that confidence in the capacity of Francois Hollande’s government to combat terrorism has plummeted after Thursday night’s attack.

The poll published in Le Figaro newspaper showed only 33 per cent of respondents were confident in the current leadership's ability to meet the challenge, down sharply from ratings of 50 per cent upwards in the wake of two major attacks last year.

Thursday’s attack came eight months after ISIL militants killed 130 people across Paris, and 18 months after three days of terror at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket killed 17, also in Paris.

Former president and main opposition leader Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday that “everything that should have been done the past 18 months was not done”.

“We are at war, outright war. So I will use strong words: it will be us or them,” he said.

While previous attacks were followed by grand displays of national unity, there was no semblance of cohesion after the Nice massacre, with Mr Sarkozy joining a long line of opposition politicians who have accused the government of not doing enough to protect the French.

Mr Cazeneuve described the bitter debate as “shameful”.

“Certain members of the political class have not respected the mourning period,” he said.

The frustration of the French was writ large in some of the messages left among flowers and tributes on Nice’s seafront.

“Enough with the speeches” and “Sick of carnage in our streets”, the messages read.

Mr Cazeneuve sought to highlight measures taken by the government to fight terrorism, such as boosting the armed forces and adopting new antiterror laws, while reminding France that 12,500 jobs in the security forces and intelligence services were cut under Mr Sarkozy’s leadership.

“There is no zero risk. By saying this we are telling the truth to the French and tackling the threat with lucidity,” he said.

The deadly use of an easily obtainable vehicle as a weapon by a man who had no history of radicalisation has highlighted the challenge for intelligence and security officials in stopping such attacks.

“We cannot exclude that an unbalanced and very violent individual” had been “through a rapid radicalisation”, Mr Cazeneuve said.

Six people were in custody on Monday including a 38-year-old Albanian suspected of providing Lahouaiej Bouhlel with a pistol he used to fire at police during the attack.

In Nice, many people were still desperately waiting for news of their loved ones.

Prosecutors said just 52 victims had been officially identified so far as they take painstaking measures to avoid errors in identification as seen during the Paris attacks last November.

At least 10 children were among the dead, as well as tourists from Ukraine, Switzerland and Germany. A local Russian association said there were about 10 victims from Russia.

Mr Cazeneuve said on Monday that 59 of the injured were still in hospital, with 29 in intensive care. Altogether 308 people were injured in the attack.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press