France defends record on security

France’s Socialist government fended off criticism of its security record yesterday in the wake of revelations that one of the assailants who slit the throat of a priest at a church altar was a known would-be jihadist under police surveillance.

President François Hollande’s predecessor and potential opponent in a presidential election next year, Nicolas Sarkozy, said the government must take stronger steps to track Islamist sympathisers.

The attack came less that two weeks after another suspected Islamist drove a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing 84 people.