Terror has become banal in Macron’s France

The mother of my daughter was at the Gare du Nord on Wednesday morning when a man ran amok with a knife. Six people were stabbed but she was not one of them. I have a friend who wasn’t so fortunate. In July 2016, three members of his family were enjoying the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice when a Tunisian drove a 19-ton lorry along the Promenade des Anglais. They died, along with 83 others, who had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

This has been the fate of the French since 2015: fingers crossed and hope for the best, a philosophy encouraged by the people whose duty it is to protect them.

‘Times have changed, and we should learn to live with terrorism,’ said the then prime minister, Manuel Valls, the day after the Nice attack. Contrast that insouciance with the urgency shown by Europe’s political elite to address a changing climate. 

Armed police curtailed the knifeman’s rampage at the Gare du Nord, and several details were later revealed about his identity, which were as vague as they were disturbing.