France cancels major European flea market over security fears

“We have really tried our best, but there are risks we cannot reduce,” Aubry told a news conference alongside Michel Lalande, the top government official in the region.

Really sad. Terrorism has actually changed their very way of life. The French authorities really need to roll up their sleeves and eradicate radical islamic elements. Decimate the several sleeper cell, which we know already exist through France.

Its a small price to pay for being compassionate.

@Outrider you forgot "tolerance" & being "politically correct." So compassion+tolerance+pc have become the trinity of values forced upon westerners (in our own countries) so that others will take advantage of us. Instilling fear of suicide bombers on masses of French citizens shopping in outdoor markets. Come Frexit, come!

"The French authorities really need to roll up their sleeves and eradicate radical islamic elements..."

They can't. They simply don't have the resources. They've got 11,000 jihadis on their watch list, requiring about a quarter of a million intelligence experts and officers for monitoring. The only way would be for France to re-orient their socio-economic system toward a kind of police state, limiting individuals' freedoms and ultimately resulting in a huge drop in everyone's living standards, not to mention quality of life.

My hope is that the policymakers whose decisions - not to mention their ignorant self-righteousness -- are directly responsible for putting their country in such a vulnerable situation will one day have to answer for their actions. I'm not holding my breath, though.

This is really depressing.

Agree with jeff and above posters. The French government has already mobilised thousands of army 'reservists' and is hoping to recruit even more but they simply do not have the resources to secure the whole country. Plus Lille being very close to Calais, Bruxelles and even Paris and also very densely populated, it has all the attributes of a soft target right now.

Been told that soldiers/reservists have now been deployed in smallish sea side towns, something that had never been done before.

This is sadly a victory for the terrorists.

Terrorism has actually changed their very way of life.

Yes, I feel like I'm in the US with cops all over. Sometimes, I'm so confused that I talk in English.

mayor Martine Aubry

Not surprised. She is a serial loser. She was going to be president and she renounced to candidacy to become mayor of a city in economic decline. And even there, all that she does is telling people they'll never get jobs in their life so they have to fight for better benefits, and now she tells them that they can't even party and live their lives because life is too risky. They will lose millions and tens of thousands of job by canceling their major event. And that does not protect them from terrorism at all.

The only way would be for France to re-orient their socio-economic system toward a kind of police state, limiting individuals' freedoms and ultimately resulting in

...resulting in average people starting to revolt against that authoritarian regime. There would be more attacks, not less.

Wc626. Agreed.