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Xavier Jugelé, Police Officer Killed in Paris Attack, Is Honored

The funeral of Xavier Jugelé in Paris on Tuesday. Officer Jugelé was killed during the terrorist attack on the Champs-Élysées last week.Credit...Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

PARIS — France paused from its intense focus on the presidential campaign on Tuesday to honor Xavier Jugelé, the veteran police officer who was shot and killed during a terrorist attack on the Champs-Élysées last week.

Officer Jugelé was remembered in a ceremony at Paris police headquarters that was attended by dozens of officials and hundreds of officers from around the globe, who heard a moving speech from his civil partner, Etienne Cardiles.

“I’d like to tell all those who are fighting to prevent events like these from happening that I understand their guilt and their feeling of failure and that they have to keep on fighting for peace,” Mr. Cardiles said.

In a reminder that the election was never far away, the two remaining candidates, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, also attended, along with President François Hollande, the man they hope to replace.

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Etienne Cardiles, whose partner, Xavier Jugelé, a police officer, was shot and killed in Paris last week, said he will not allow himself hatred for the perpetrators of the attack on the Champs-Élysées.CreditCredit...Francois Mori/Associated Press

The officer’s coffin was covered with a French flag and placed at the center of a courtyard in a ceremony that served as a powerful reminder of the perilous times in which the elections were taking place and of the heavy price paid by French security forces in recent years. A minute’s silence was held in police stations across France.

Officer Jugelé, 37, was shot in the head on Thursday while at the wheel of a parked police van. He has been posthumously promoted and awarded the Legion of Honor. Two other police officers and a bystander were wounded in the attack.

In a personal and moving elegy, Mr. Cardiles described the man he loved in vivid terms. “You went to your job at 2 p.m. in the clothes that you wore when maintaining order, of which you took so much care,” he said. “I know you enjoyed this type of mission; I know, because it was the Champs” — meaning the Champs-Élysées — “and the image of France, because it was also culture that you were protecting.”

Mr. Cardiles then shifted to the night of the attack, saying that when he had heard there had been an attack on the Champs-Élysées and that a police officer had been killed, “A little voice inside told me that it was you.”

He addressed his companion’s killer, who was shot the night of the attacks, saying, “You will not have my hate.” This was an echo of the words of Antoine Leiris, the husband of one of the victims in the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan music hall in Paris, who wrote a book saying he would not be sucked into hatred of his wife’s killers.

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President François Hollande of France spoke at the funeral on Tuesday.Credit...Francois Mori/Associated Press

Mr. Cardiles closed his remarks by saying, “You will stay in my heart for always; I love you,” and then added as a sort of benediction: “May peace prevail; let us maintain peace.”

Mr. Hollande said that eight police officers and 14 military police officers had died on duty last year, and Officer Jugelé’s death brought the number of victims of terrorist attacks in France since the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015 to 239. The country remains under the state of emergency imposed after the November 2015 attacks in around and Paris, which left 130 people dead.

“Once again, France has lost one of its bravest sons,” Mr. Hollande said. He added that the police had “become targets because of the uniform they wear,” noting the officers who were stabbed to death last year in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Mr. Hollande, who has recently said that he will support Mr. Macron in the vote on May 7, called on the two candidates to support his efforts to increase the size of France’s security forces, and told them that “perseverance and coherence” were expected, “rather than escalation and divisiveness.” Neither candidate spoke at the ceremony.

Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron both say they will hire more police officers: she has promised 15,000, and he 10,000.

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Emmanuel Macron, center, a French presidential candidate, also attended the ceremony honoring Officer Jugelé on Tuesday.Credit...Bertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ms. Le Pen, who said on Monday that she would temporarily step down as the head of the National Front to focus on the campaign, has said she would emphasize modernizing police equipment. Mr. Macron has promised to restore community police programs.

The two candidates differ vastly, however, on how the fight against terrorism should be waged.

Ms. Le Pen has placed it at the center of a battle to save, as she frames it, the soul of France, calling for strong borders and the deportation of foreigners who are on a terror watch list.

Mr. Macron, on the other hand, says he would strengthen security by working with the European Union while promoting an open, multiethnic society, urging the French people not to “give in to fear.”

Visiting the Rungis wholesale market outside Paris early Tuesday morning, Ms. Le Pen reaffirmed her protectionist agenda and denounced Mr. Macron for celebrating his first-round score at the Rotonde, an upscale brasserie in Paris.

“When Hollande calls for a vote for Macron, everyone wants to vote for Le Pen,” she said in a cheerful tone, referring to the president, who is deeply unpopular.

Mr. Macron’s campaign was off to a slower start, although polls have suggested that he is an overwhelming favorite. His team has announced plans for rallies this week in northern France, where Ms. Le Pen performed best in the first round of voting on Sunday.

A correction was made on 
April 25, 2017

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated when the first round of voting in the French presidential election took place. It was Sunday, not Saturday.

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