Attack in Mulhouse: Bayrou considers it "unacceptable" that Algeria refused to take back the attacker

"It's unacceptable." For several minutes on the sidelines of a visit to the Agricultural Show on Monday, February 24, François Bayrou denounced an "unacceptable" situation, while Algeria has refused ten times to take back the assailant of the Mulhouse attack , which occurred on Saturday.

The perpetrator, who caused the death of a sixty-year-old and injured three municipal police officers with a knife, was subject to an order to leave French territory (OQTF).

"The Mulhouse assassin was presented ten times to the Algerian authorities so that they would agree to send him home. Ten times, the answer was no. Is that acceptable? For me, it is perfectly clear: it is unacceptable," the Prime Minister declared in front of the journalists' microphones.

"Imagine the situation if it were reversed: if Algeria wanted to send back to us delinquents, potential murderers, and we said no. What would the Algerian authorities say?" he then asked, repeating that he did not accept this as head of government, but also as a "father of a family".

According to information given this Saturday by the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, after a meeting with local authorities at the Mulhouse police station, the man had arrived illegally in France in 2014.

After a six-month sentence for advocating terrorism, the man was released after four and a half months in detention. He was then placed in an administrative detention center (CRA) for three months, during which time France tried to deport him to Algeria. After the maximum period of three months in the CRA, the man was released.

He was then placed under house arrest in Mulhouse, and had to report to the police station. This Saturday, the man reported to the police station but refused to report. It was after this visit to the police station that he committed the knife attack.

"It is purely and simply unacceptable to continue like this," insisted François Bayrou. "We must therefore take decisions so that the Algerian government and public authorities understand what France's determination is."

Meetings to discuss the subject will take place "in the coming days" according to the Prime Minister. "The defense of our safeguard, of our immediate security, requires the strong affirmation that we cannot accept the situation that has been created," François Bayrou also declared.

This Saturday after the events, he had affirmed that "fanaticism has struck again" and that France is "in mourning", in a message posted on X.