PARIS (AP) — Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France needs to rethink its security culture, amid an escalating scandal over the government’s handling of police deployment in Nice on the night of the deadly Bastille Day attack.
Speaking Monday on BFM television, Valls said “we need a deep change in our security culture” after the Nice attack, which killed 84.
He didn’t elaborate. However, Valls defended Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who is facing accusations that his office pressured a local official to cover up a lack of national police presence on the night of July 14. Cazeneuve has denied wrongdoing and is suing for defamation.
Valls said the accusations are an effort by the conservative opposition to “destabilize the government.”
France’s president has ordered an internal police probe into security in Nice that night.
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