Man planning to assassinate French President, Emmanuel Macron arrested

A "far-right" French "nationalist" has been arrested and charged over an alleged plan to  assassinate France President Emmanuel Macron on Bastille Day parade on July 14 when he is due to oversee a military parade with US president, Donald Trump as guest of honor.

The 23-year-old man from the Paris suburb of Argenteui was arrested and taken into custody on Thursday last week after expressing an interest in acquiring a Kalashnikov assault rifle in an online video game chatroom.

The suspect who threatened police with a kitchen knife during the arrest spoke of "extreme" nationalist views told police in an interview that he wanted to make a "political" statement by killing Mr Macron. He also said he wanted to attack "blacks, Arabs Jews and homosexuals".

His computer contained a search history of potential targets, it has been reported.

The Paris prosecutor's office described him as "psychologically unstable but conscious (of his actions) and determined".

He was charged on Saturday for individual terrorist activity and remanded in custody,  The prosecutor's office said that the suspect's plans were vague and not yet finalised, and that he appeared to be acting alone.

The suspect was convicted last year to three years in prison, with 18 months suspended, for "provoking racial hatred and supporting terrorism" after expressing admiration for Anders Behring Brevik, the Norwegian far-Right terrorist who murdered eight people in a bomb attack and shot dead another 69 Workers Youth League members at a summer camp in July 2011.