Macron’s biggest test is tackling France’s jihadi threat

The trial began this week in Paris of three young men accused of plotting to attack Fort Béar, a military base in the Pyrenees mountains that is used as a commando training centre. Three Islamists, led by 25-year-old Djebril Amara, a former navy rating who passed through the centre, were arrested in the summer of 2015, shortly before they were set to launch their assault that they hoped would end with the decapitation of the fort’s commander.

They met in a video games forum, and online was where they passed much of their time. “I’m hypnotised,” Djebril admitted to his interrogators. “I eat, live and breathe Isis. I spent my life in my room – YouTube–Isis–YouTube–Isis. That was it.”

The trial will hear how the three men used the internet to make contact with other Islamists in France and learned how to fabricate bombs. It’s not too dissimilar to what is currently being heard in another Paris court, this one sitting in judgement on five men from the Mediterranean town of Lunel who are accused of belonging to a 20-strong jihadist network that fought in Syria.