France’s Justice Minister said the government would not give in to “acts of intimidation” after a wave of attacks targeting prisons across the country.On Monday night, vehicles were set alight outside several French prisons and one jail was hit by gunfire, in what Gérald Darmanin described as “terrorist attacks”.Seven prisons have been targeted, in Toulon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseille, Valence and Nîmes in southern France, and in Villepinte and Nanterre, near Paris.Darmanin suggested the attacks which began on Sunday were a response to the government’s crackdown on drug trafficking. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation.On Tuesday, Darmanin visited Toulon’s La Farlede prison where gunmen opened fired on the prison gate with a Kalashnikov.”I am delighted that the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has taken action because this is extremely serious,” he told reporters. “These are terrorist attacks.”He added that “significant means” were being employed to find the perpetrators and they would be given “extremely severe sentences”.Darmanin indicated that the “acts of intimidation against prison workers” were related to government efforts to tackle drug crime. “It might also be because we hit them where it hurts,” he said, “and for the first time in decades, France is taking extremely serious measures against drug trafficking.”Earlier on Tuesday, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the government’s response must be “relentless”. “Those who attack prisons and officers deserve to be locked up in those prisons and monitored by those officers,” he posted on X.He added that he had instructed police to immediately strengthen security at prison facilities. The prison guard union, FO Justice, expressed its “deepest concern and anger” following the “extremely serious” attacks overnight. The union posted updates from the afterma …
