Paris – France’s lower house has on Wednesday approved an extension to the state of emergency, prolonging extraordinary security measures for six more months after an attack in Nice last week left 84 people dead.
A report from Paris noted that the early morning vote in the National Assembly after a drawn-out debate showed that 489 lawmakers were in favour of the extension, 26 against and four abstained.
The report said further that the Senate was due to debate the extension later on Wednesday, and that the conservative politicians there were expected to further toughen the measures.
It disclosed that the debate in the lower house which began on Tuesday evening lasted approximately seven hours.
It described the extension of the state of emergency as the fourth of such vote since the measures were enacted after terrorist attacks around Paris last November.
The government had said it was seeking a three-month extension to the measures, including a reintroduction of some of the harsher rules that had been phased out during the last extension through the summer sporting events, but it said it was open to extending for six months.
Acrimony over whether the government has done enough to protect France from the threat posed by terrorism has led to deep divisions since the attack in Nice, the third large-scale terrorist attack on French soil in 19 months. (dpa/NAN)