French leader: State’s failure to help poor fueled extremism

PARIS – President Emmanuel Macron says the French state fueled homegrown extremism by abandoning its poorest neighbourhoods, and is promising tough and “sometimes authoritarian” new measures to combat the problem.

The pledge is part of a multibillion-euro plan that Macron is laying out Tuesday focusing on suburban housing projects plagued by crime and joblessness.

Macron was unusually harsh in his criticism of previous governments, saying radicalization took root because the state abdicated its responsibility in impoverished public housing, and extremist preachers filled the void.

He said his government will present about 15 measures to fight radicalization and will close “unacceptable structures” that promote radicalism and “try to fracture us.”

Several extremist attackers who have targeted France in recent years were raised in troubled French social housing and radicalized here.