How French terror attacks will impact on presidential election campaign

ANALYSIS: The timing of the latest terror attacks in Paris had an immediate impact on Sunday’s first-round presidential election campaign.

ANALYSIS

THE timing on the latest terror attacks in Paris had an immediate impact on Sunday’s first-round presidential election campaign, with two of the leading candidates, Marine Le Pen and Francois Fillon, cancelling events planned for Friday, the last day of the campaign.

Pundits are now trying to work out what impact it will have at the ballot box.

It had long been predicted that Le Pen, who is campaigning on a national security and anti-Muslim migration platform, would be the obvious beneficiary from a jihadist terror attack.

On Monday night at a rally she had pledged “I will protect you’’ and used her campaign opening speech in February to declare she would resist efforts by “Islamist globalisation’’ to bring France to its knees.

French presidential election candidates Francois Fillon, right, and Marine Le Pen cancelled campaign events after the Paris terror attack. Picture: AFP

Le Pen, and left-centre candidate Emmanuel Macron, are the two candidates considered more likely to go through to the second round at the close of voting on Sunday night.

Observers have previously told News Corp that a terror attack, particularly between the two rounds of voting, would provide a major boost for Le Pen.

Some analysts now say that the attacks could also see voters turn to Francois Fillon, a conservative candidate from the Republican party, a Catholic figurehead and a former prime minister seen as a safe pair of hands.

All 11 candidates in Sunday’s poll were on TV taking part in a live debate when the attacks occurred on Thursday night.

Marine Le Pen is expected to go through to the second round at the close of voting on Sunday night. Picture: AFP

Opinion polls show four of them have a serious chance of making it through to the second round of voting on May 7.

Those four candidates all made careful public statements in the wake of the attack, expressing sympathy and support for the targeted police officers and avoiding any mention of the motive for the apparent terror attack.

On Twitter, Le Pen wrote: “I feel for and stand by our security forces, who have been targeted again.’’

French anti-terror prosecutors said they opened a probe today into the shooting on Paris's Champs Elysees that killed one police officer and wounded two others. Picture: AFP

A soldier stand guards near the Arc de Triomphe after the shooting. Picture: AFP

Police secured the area after the terror tragedy. Picture: Getty Images

Fillon expressed similar sentiments, tweeting: “tribute to the security forces who give their lives to protect ours.’’

The hard-Left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also wrote on Twitter: “I strongly feel for the policemen killed and wounded and their families. Terrorist attacks will never go unpunished, accomplices never forgotten.”

Macron was asked about the attack on-air, and said it was a president’s “first duty to protect.” He also offered “solidarity’’ with the police who were targeted.

AFP news agency reported 238 people had been killed in jihadist attacks in France since 2015, showing why the issue has been so important in the campaign.

While Le Pen and Fillon have promised a hard-line response to Islamist violence, Macron and Melenchon have both been defined by their opponents as soft on national security.