PARIS—France wants to bring the United States and Russia together in a grand coalition dedicated to smashing the Islamic State (ISIS), President Francois Hollande told lawmakers Monday in a rare joint session in the Palace of Versailles as authorities worldwide struggled to pinpoint those responsible for the deadliest attacks on French soil since World War II.
“The faces of the dead people, of the wounded, of the families don’t leave my mind,” Hollande declared after France and many allies observed a minute of silence in honor of the 129 killed and 350 wounded when ISIS attackers targeted a soccer stadium, a rock concert and four nightspots Friday with assault gun fire and suicide bombs.
“In my determination to combat terrorism, I want France to remain itself. The barbarians who attack France would like to disfigure it. They will not make it change,” Hollande pledged. “They must never be able to spoil France’s soul.”
However, he signaled a likely months-long security crackdown following security sweeps overnight in which police nationwide arrested 127 people and seized 31 weapons, including automatic firearms and a rocket launcher.
Hollande said he would present a bill Wednesday seeking to extend a state of emergency—granting the police and military greater powers of search and arrest, and local governments the right to ban demonstrations and impose curfews—for another three months.
He also pledged to hire 5,000 more police within the next two years, to freeze cuts in military personnel through 2019, and to introduce other bills that would stiffen jail terms for arms trafficking and make it easier to deport suspected terrorists.
In neighboring Belgium, the base for many of Friday’s attackers, police surrounded the suspected hideout of a man identified as a driver for the attackers, but came up empty after charging into the property. In Paris, officials identified the alleged mastermind of the attacks, a Belgian man who is believed to be beyond reach in Syria.
