The body of the 19-year-old woman, named only as Philippine, was found buried in the Bois de Boulogne park in an affluent area in the west of Paris on Saturday. Philippine was studying economics at Paris-Dauphine university and was last seen a few hundred metres away from campus around midday on Friday.

Daily Mail (h/t Bobby) The suspect, only partially named by French media as Taha O., is a 22-year-old Muslim from Morocco who had been due to be expelled from France after serving five years in jail for raping a student in 2019, Le Monde newspaper and BFM TV said.

On June 20, he had reportedly been sent straight from jail to a detention centre for illegal migrants pending his expulsion, but a Muslim-sympathizing judge set him free on September 3, as the expulsion process was getting bogged down in administrative delays. He was supposed to check in regularly with police and stay on at a specific hotel, French media said, but three days after his release, when the paperwork to expel him was completed, Taha O. had disappeared.

Marine Le Pen’s right wing National Rally party has said in past weeks it reserved the right to withdraw its tacit backing for Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s cabinet if its concerns over immigration and other issues were not addressed, saying the fate of the government was in its hands.

‘It’s time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and will not be content with just words,’ RN chief Jordan Bardella said, accusing the state of being too soft on security and immigration after French media said the suspect was a 22-year-old migrant with a criminal record.

He added: ‘This migrant had no right to be here, but he was able to offend again in total impunity. Our justice is too lenient; our state is dysfunctional. It is time for the government to act.’

‘Philippine’s life was stolen from her by a Moroccan migrant targeted by an OQTF (obligation to leave France),’ he said on social media platform X on Tuesday evening.

Marine Le Pen’s RN party acquired kingmaker status by signalling support for a new coalition between centrists and conservatives, after a July election in which President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government suffered heavy losses.

On Wednesday morning, new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said: ‘If we need to change the rules, let’s change them.’ ‘Faced with such a tragedy, preceded by many others, we cannot just condemn it or be outraged,’ Retailleau said in a statement. ‘It’s up to us, public officials, to […] update our legislation, to protect the French.’

Retailleau, from the conservative Republicans party, had already signaled earlier this week that France was likely to see much tougher immigration and security measures.