On the fifth anniversary of the attack on Bataclan, the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen says she is determined to build a Europe that protects. Yet in the summit of the 27 Ministers of the Interior of the Old Continent, yesterday in a video conference, the war on terrorism is on the decline. There is no balance around the clarity with which the French president had agreed on a plan together with the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. All references to Islam disappear from the EU document. We speak generically of “the fight against extremism”. And since yesterday it was about dismissing the proposals that the heads of state and government will discuss on 10 and 11 December, the die is cast. The cautious, not to say cowardly line wins.
While France has been reporting for days the evidence related to the risk of landings in Lampedusa, pushing with Austria to explicitly link attacks, immigration and the religious phenomenon (in the first draft the word “Islam” was mentioned 15 times, and the Commission was asked to find a way to educate imams in Europe), the declaration signed yesterday by the 27 states instead that “the fight against terrorism is not directed against religious or political beliefs, but against fanatical and violent extremism”. Which matrix is not known. Impossible to put it in black and white. At least for Berlin, which presides over the EU Council until 31 December.
Frau Merkel softens the Macron-Kurz line. Thus France finds itself remembering the victims of 2015 without much change: 130 deaths between Bataclan and other areas then shocked Paris and the EU. New attacks in Nice and Vienna. And yet an Old continent in solidarity with words, which is careful not to go along with France and Austria in the common fight against political Islam.
Both nations recently hit by Islamist attacks consider the religious message, distorted or otherwise, as the main culprit for terrorist actions in the heart of Europe. The Elysée asked the EU to name the enemy, as was done yesterday in Paris. Even in the liturgy of commemorations and gerberas in the affected places, the government responds with ad hoc measures against Islamic associations, hate preachers in mosques and online proclamations of death. Like the digital “fatwa” that sentenced Professor Samuel Paty to be beheaded. Or like the message unearthed yesterday by investigators on the cell phone of Brahim Issaoui, the author of the slaughter in Nice on 29 October.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor revealed that on the Tunisian’s phone there was a photo of the teacher’s killer, the refugee Abdulakh Anzorov turned into an idol. And even the presence of an audio message in which the boy who escaped the Tunisian radar, landed in Lampedusa, indicated France as a “land of unbelievers” to be punished, as well as dozens of photos “related” to ISIS.
The EU responds to Paris’s requests by proposing to strengthen the operational mandate of Europol, the European police office: more staff and direct funding. “We need to know who enters and who leaves our borders,” summarizes German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. Germany leaves the pachyderm anchored to old ‘prevention’ schemes, with Europol estimating that 22% of those entering the Schengen area are not registered in the area. “There is a fair amount of room for improvement” on border controls, both land and sea, admits EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson.
But simply “improving the exchange of information and data” on who is a threat, paying “attention to the phenomenon of radicalization online and offline”, seems not very decisive. In December, action will be taken to remove content that convey hatred “within an hour at the latest”. More than fighting the authors of the Islamist messages, war is being waged on the means by which they propagate.
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