"We certainly need to extend the state of emergency. Why? Because since the beginning of the year, we had already prevented 7 attacks, which could have made a lot of victims," Collomb told the CNEWS broadcaster.
The minister also stressed the need to establish a special agency with the primary goal to fight the propaganda spread by the Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) through the Internet.
"There is certain number of people who watch the videos online and get radicalized… [French] President [Emmanuel Macron] often says that they [terrorists] are highly sophisticated in their communication methods and propaganda, so we also need to be able to send a different message, give these people… another image of the civilization that we protect… We need to launch an extremely strict enterprise of de-radicalization," Collomb noted.
There are three mosques in France which are likely to be closed for "advocating terrorism," the minister said, adding that 16 other mosques had already been closed since the introduction of the state of emergency.
On July 3, Macron said that the state of emergency in France would be lifted in fall.
