Will shootings affect French election?

Re-election to the Elysée Palace was looking like mission impossible for President Nicolas Sarkozy: Trailing far behind the socialist candidate François Hollande in the polls for months, Sarkozy had only just recently narrowed his rival's lead, but only at the price of a pugnacious and robust few weeks of campaigning, exploiting the extreme right's favorite themes, immigration and halal meat, Kazinform refers to CNN.

Then tragedy struck in the streets of southwestern France, in the otherwise picturesque towns of Montauban and Toulouse.

The killing spree of a homegrown terrorist, radicalized in French prisons and trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, acted like a jolt: Here was a Frenchman executing his compatriots at point blank range -- among them, little children aged three to eight -- in the name of Allah.

The election campaign stopped in its tracks, time seemed suspended. For three days, candidate Sarkozy became President again. French police reacted swiftly once the means were put into the investigation. The killer was identified, found and shot down after a 32-hour siege during which terrorist Mohammed Merah first said he would surrender and then swore to kill as many policemen as possible.

During those three days, French media kept quiet, didn't ask difficult questions, they were mainly processing the shock felt by the whole country. Never had France's children been harmed in a school before. In France, a school is a sacrosanct place at the heart of the French republic, the place where children become citizens.

Nicolas Sarkozy didn't waste much time. A few hours after Mohammed Merah was gunned down, he had traded his official clothes for that of the candidate's. At a political rally, he uttered the strongest words yet. He said it was immoral to ask questions surrounding Mohamed Merah's radicalization in France. The man was a monster and that was it.