Paris: French police thwarted an imminent "terror attack" and arrested two suspected radicals on Tuesday in the southern port city of Marseille, the interior minister said just days before the first round of France's presidential election. It has been one of the most unpredictable and dramatic presidential campaigns in French political history - and with less than a week to go before the election, the outcome remains too close to call.
"The collected elements show that the two men prepared an imminent and violent act on French territory but without being able to determine at this stage the date or the targets", Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
Clement B and Mahiedine M, arrested in Marseille for an alleged terror plot, April 18, 2017.
"They were aiming to commit in the very short term, in other words in the next few days, an attack on French soil", Fekl said.
French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National (FN) party Marine Le Pen seen during a campaign meeting in Paris, April 17, 2017.
Photos of the two suspects in the plot were distributed last week to the security teams for Le Pen and centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron.
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Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who has surged in recent weeks, was on 19 percent, the poll showed, while conservative leader Francois Fillon, recovering from a nepotism scandal, was on 19.5 percent. It warned main candidates in the ballot of a threat to their security, according to campaign officials. A group of terrorists killed 130 people in a series of explosions and shootings in November 2015.
Le Pen dropped by 2.5 percentage points to 22.5 percent of voting intentions since early April, and Macron fell 2 percentage points to 23 percent in the first round. The latest opinion polls suggest Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron are expected to make it to the May 7 runoff.
Le Pen would lose in the second round of voting against all three rival candidates.
Le Pen wants to pull France out of the Euro zone and also foresees a mass renegotiation of EU treaties, sparking fears in Brussels that a far-right victory, hot on the heels of Brexit, could be fatal for the European bloc.
There are 11 candidates altogether vying for the post of President of the French Republic.
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