French interior minister: Hate crimes down 80% this year

France’s interior minister said Monday that anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim acts had dropped 80 percent in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period the previous year.

In a speech to a conference of the CRIF, the umbrella body of French Jewry, in Paris, Bernard Cazeneuve said the steep decline was due to heightened vigilance of law enforcement authorities and close coordination between state security services and each community’s security organization, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported.

“People might say, ‘That’s it, the battle is won.’ I do not think so. When there is so much violence and so much hatred, a decline in attacks does not mean that society has overcome [the violence],” he told the assembled Jewish leaders. “It means that the mutual vigilance we have put in place has started to bear fruit.”

The good news would not lead to a decline in the efforts of law enforcement to counter hate crimes, Cazeneuve vowed, “but rather strengthen it.”

Yet the drop in attacks suggests that “there is in this country, besides the ardor of those with hate in their hearts… a spirit of brotherhood and solidarity that, as happened so often in the history of our country, outweighed the bad.”

The 80% decline fits previously reported figures for anti-Muslim attacks, Le Monde noted. A report by an umbrella Muslim group said the first three months of 2016 saw an 82% drop in such attacks.

Despite Cazeneuve’s statement, no figures are publicly available for anti-Semitic attacks during that period.

French Jews have seen a spike in emigration, especially to Israel and Canada, as many say they are frightened by a spike in jihadist terror attacks against them. Four people were gunned down at the Hyper Cacher kosher market in eastern Paris on January 9, 2015, by attacker Amedy Coulibaly, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State.

Both 2014 and 2015 saw record numbers of French Jews leaving for Israel.