Thursday's shootings followed the arrest this week of two men in Marseille on suspicion of plotting an attack around Sunday's hotly contested first-round presidential vote, fueling France's worst fear: a terrorist attack as crowds gather at polling stations across the nation.
The vote, which comes just days after a terrorist attack in Paris that left one police officer dead and stoked terrorism fears, could have reverberating consequences for the US and its European alliances.
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A note praising IS was found next to the body of 39-year-old gunman Karim Cheurfi, who shot dead an officer and wounded two others before being killed in a firefight that sent tourists on the Champs Elysees rushing for cover.
However, previous attacks that have taken place shortly before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional polls, and a shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidentials, did not appear to boost the scores of those espousing tougher national security.
A runoff with Le Pen and Macron would also be notable, since it wouldn't include the mainstream parties that have governed in France for decades.
"There is no left-right divide on this subject, the only difference between candidates is in the degree of the means implemented on the ground", he said.
If Melenchon makes it to the runoff, he is projected to beat both Le Pen and Fillon by comfortable margins although he is seen losing to Macron 41 percent to 59 percent. "We don't want there to be a Trump in France".
"I've heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided", he said on RTL Radio.
As Paris got back to business, municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn to wash down the pavement where the assault took place - a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over two years.
"Emmanuel Macron's youth and positive demeanour is attractive", he said.
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The BJP has been in power at the municipal corporation for the last 10 years, but has been facing criticism for shoddy work. Manish Sisodia appealed to the people to come and vote for his party and "help the national capital fight corruption".
A former top Obama aide, Ben Rhodes, also wrote Saturday on Twitter that a Le Pen victory would be "devastating". With their hardline view on security and immigration, the positions of Le Pen and Fillon may resonate more strongly for some voters. He is also in favour of working with Russian Federation on global issues like Syria.
PARIS (AP) - France's top officials and presidential candidates are attending a national ceremony to honor the police officer killed by an Islamic extremist on the Champs-Elysees.
Voters headed to the polls on Saturday in many of France's overseas territories like Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, as well as in the US. "There's no such thing as zero risk".
Fillon is the only one among the leading contenders from an established party of government.
"It would be catastrophic - the undoing of 65 years of foreign and security policy", François Heisbourg, an analyst with the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, told The Washington Post.
She has promised a "Frexit" if elected, pledging to "recover the monetary, economic, legislative and territorial sovereignty" of France, re-establish national borders, and leave the Schengen area of free circulation.
Her ambitions have led observers to predict that a Le Pen victory could be a fatal blow for the European Union, already weakened by Britain's vote to leave.
But the Nationalist Front isn't the only French party critical of the EU.
Officers also conducted a search at the home in eastern Paris of the dead attacker.
"Several Europes are possible, it doesn't have to be just their Europe", said Melenchon, a eurosceptic who has pledged to renegotiate treaties with the bloc.
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