Sarkozy stands to gain most from arrest Marine Le Pen, leader of France's extreme right National Front, wasted no time on Wednesday in seeking political advantage from news that the suspected killer of three Jewish children, a Jewish teacher and three Muslim soldiers was a French citizen apparently linked to al-Qaeda. "It is time to wage war on these fundamentalist political religious groups who are killing our children," she said. The threat of Islamic fundamentalism has been underestimated. [I] have been talking about this for months and months, and the political class has rejected [me]. Some are going to have difficulty explaining themselves but I have a clear conscience," she declared as police laid siege to the gunman in an apartment in Toulouse. The brutal killings were shocking in any context but they have been given added significance by erupting within weeks of the presidential election, with the first round of voting due on April 22. On the face of it, Ms Le Pen, who regularly attacks immigration and the influence of Islam in French society, stands to gain from what was apparently the first Islamist-motivated terrorist attack in France since 1997 - especially as it was evidently carried out by a so-called homegrown terrorist. But in political terms, president Nicolas Sarkozy may well benefit the most. "I don't believe [Ms Le Pen] will be able to profit from this," said Philippe Moreau-Defarge of IFRI, the French institute of international relations. At moments like this, people turn to their government. Mr Sarkozy has always put the accent on security, his team have been tough on terrorism and the police have been very effective [in this case]. Mr Sarkozy has taken care to try to rally the country over the affair. He called Jewish and Muslim leaders to meet with him on Wednesday before leading the tributes to the murdered soldiers at a ceremony at their base near Toulouse. He suspended his formal re-election campaign until Thursday and has assumed the role of a national statesman leading the country through a jarring and emotional crisis. François Hollande, the opposition Socialist candidate who also suspended his campaign, was meanwhile reduced to a subdued role, acting as a kind of shadow president and following after Mr Sarkozy to visit the scene of the murders and participate in formal ceremonies. The question now is how the debate on security and the role of the Muslim community in France will play out in the remainder of the campaign. It will be complicated by the fact that the victims of the gunman included Muslims of north African origin. "This will relaunch discussion on the failures of integration in France, but it is difficult to say exactly in what measure," said Marc-Olivier Padis of the think-tank Terra Nova. Everyone will now be obliged to be very careful what they say. France has Europe's largest Muslim community, estimated at about 5m, mostly of north African origin, although the exact number is unknown as no official count is made of religion in France. Mr Padis said there had been a resurgence of traditional religious practices such as mosque attendance and the eating of halal meat, but added that this was not characterised by widespread political radicalism. Nonetheless, factors such as a visible increase in religious observance and high unemployment rates have tended to increase alienation and resentments on both sides, fuelling support for the National Front. In his bid to fend off the threat to his right from Ms Le Pen, Mr Sarkozy had before the shootings launched a series of attacks on immigration - calling it "a problem" that needed to be halved - and against multiculturalism, insisting that immigrant communities must integrate fully into French society. Having already legislated against the wearing of the burka, he had denounced the notion of segregated swimming pool sessions and advocated labelling meat to show if it had been ritually slaughtered under Muslim halal or Jewish kosher rules. This kind of rhetoric prompted François Bayrou, the centrist candidate in the presidential election, to caution on Tuesday against what he called a "growing climate of intolerance." But Mr Sarkozy is unlikely to be shy in proclaiming his credentials on security, assuming the police now wrap up quickly the case of the motorcycle gunman. The president will resume campaigning relieved - and quite possibly boosted - by the quick resolution of the issue as he tries to catch up to Mr Hollande in the polls. Hollande has no option but to follow Sarkozy on this. He will have to react very firmly," said Prof Moreau-Defarge. But whether it will decide the election is another question.