French government closes ranks on Nice policing claims

France’s government has closed ranks around interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, amid an intensifying dispute over allegations that his staff tried to alter a report into policing on the night of the deadly Bastille Day attack in Nice.

Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, said he had full confidence in Cazeneuve, who, on Sunday, dismissed an assertion by the head of Nice’s video surveillance that ministry staff pressured her to indicate the presence of national police-force officers at certain sites where the attack unfurled.

“This has to stop. There can be no room for doubt in the fight against terrorism,” Valls told BFM TV. “I don’t have any doubts about Bernard Cazeneuve.”