France is to create a dedicated office to combat hate crime in response to incidents including the desecration of over a hundred Jewish graves near Strasbourg last week.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said “the republic itself has been desecrated” after 107 headstones were daubed with swastikas in a cemetery overnight on December 3.
“Hatred has struck, there is hatred on our national territory. We will do everything so that the people who have done this are convicted,” he said, according to AFP.
The national bureau would be linked to France’s gendarmerie, the country’s military police force, and be responsible for investigating anti-Muslim and anti-Christian incidents in addition to cases of antisemitism.
