‘Respond to Nice terror attacks with more liberty, equality, fraternity’ - Muscat

Parliament observed a minute of silence for the victims of last week’s terror attack in Nice, as Joseph Muscat invoked the French national motto to urge the world to respond with more “equality, liberty and fraternity”.

“No words can do justice to the sadness and rage that all people of goodwill felt after those attacks,” the prime minister said in a ministerial statement on the attacks that left 85 people dead.

“What is most shocking about it is that the victims were families who were killed while celebrating the French values of liberty, equality and fraternity. The worst possible reaction would be to allow the attack to erode these values; rather we must endorse them now more than ever.”

Noting that the terrorist – Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel – used a truck to mow down his victims, Muscat called for common sense to prevail when beefing up security measures.

“We can always invest in more intelligence systems, but we cannot elude ourselves into believing that we can monitor every car in the world,” he said. “Our greatest weapon against terrorism is education; to convince these people that such cowardice and savagery isn’t the way to go in a civilized world.”

Muscat’s comments were echoed by PN deputy leader Mario de Marco, who urged people not to let terror attacks impact their everyday lives.

“Rather, we should live our everyday lives with a sense of purpose – as a challenge against those people who wish to destroy them.”