A man has been charged with plotting to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron on Bastille Day during United States President Donald Trump’s visit to France, a spokeswoman for the Paris Prosecutor’s office said on Monday.
Spokeswoman Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre told CNN a 23-year-old suspect had been arrested.
Investigators said the man planned to attack Macron on July 14, during an parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where President Trump is set to be a guest of honour, according to public service radio broadcaster, France Info.
The suspect was arrested on Wednesday in the north-west Paris suburb of Argenteuil by anti-terror services, and was charged with “individual terrorist activity” on Saturday.
A self described far right nationalist, the man told police he wanted to make a political statement by killing Macron, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported.
He also said he wanted to attack, “blacks, Arabs, Jews and homosexuals,” according to police documents seen by BFMTV.
Security forces were alerted by users of a video game site, after the suspect posted about allegedly wanting to buy a Kalashnikov-type weapon to commit an attack, BFMTV said.
Police said it is too early in the investigation to say if the suspect is linked to a wider network, but he was convicted of terror related activity in 2016, according to France Info.
Last year, 86 people were killed in a truck attack during Bastille Day festivities in Nice, France.
On Monday, Macron said he would lift the state of emergency imposed upon the country since November 2015 later this year.
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