France's newly-appointed interior minister on Wednesday vowed consequences after a Moroccan man suspected of murdering a 19-year-old university student was arrested in Switzerland.
"This is an abominable crime," said France's interior minister Bruno Retailleau.
Retailleau, who on Monday took over from his predecessor Gerald Darmanin, has vowed to boost law and order, tighten immigration legislation and make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.
"It is up to us, as public leaders, to refuse to accept the inevitable and to develop our legal arsenal, to protect the French," the leader of the conservative group of senators added.
"If we have to change the rules, let's change them."
On Saturday, the body of Philippine, a student at the Paris-Dauphine university, was discovered in the Bois de Boulogne park in western Paris. The student had last been seen at the university on Friday.
A Moroccan national was arrested on Tuesday in the Swiss canton of Geneva and was identified as a suspect in a murder committed in Paris, a spokeswoman for the Swiss justice ministry told French news agency AFP.
"The Federal Office of Justice then ordered detention for extradition purposes on the basis of an arrest request from France," she added.
According to the prosecutors, in 2021 the man was convicted of a rape committed in 2019 when he was a minor and had been the subject of an order to leave France.
Deportation orders
The killing of the student has sparked outrage in the country, with both the far right and left-wing politicians urging tough measures.
"Philippine's life was stolen from her by a Moroccan migrant who was under a removal order," Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right RN, the largest single party in parliament, said on X Tuesday evening.
"Our justice system is lax, our state is dysfunctional and our leaders are letting the French live alongside human bombs," he added.
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Former socialist president François Hollande also chimed in, saying deportation orders had to be enforced "quickly".
Green MP Sandrine Rousseau said that this "feminicide" deserved "to be judged and punished severely", adding that the far right would "try to take advantage of this to spread their racist and xenophobic hatred".
France routinely issues deportation orders known under the French abbreviation 'OQTF'. Around seven percent of them are enforced, compared to 30 percent across the European Union.
(with AFP)
