Hollande wants state of emergency until presidential vote

PARIS – French President Francois Hollande says he wants the country’s state of emergency prolonged until its presidential election next spring.

Hollande said in an interview Tuesday with three French media outlets that France is “at war” in three places. Those are in Iraq and Syria as part of the coalition carrying out airstrikes, in Mali where French soldiers are still trying to rout Islamist extremists, and Hollande says “we are confronting people, very regularly, who want to attack us here, on our soil.”

He says “I want to prolong the state of emergency until the presidential election” in April and May, noting that parliament must approve the measure.

France has been under a state of emergency since the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks, claimed by Islamic State group, that killed 130.