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PARIS—France is preparing to expand its airstrikes against Islamic State into Syria, French President François Hollande said on Monday, deepening the country’s involvement in the Syrian conflict.
The announcement marks a shift for Mr. Hollande, who has ordered strikes against the extremist group’s positions in Iraq while avoiding targets in Syria. Mr. Hollande has steered clear of French airstrikes in Syria for fear they would bolster Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad , Islamic State’s main foe in the country’s chaotic civil war.
“Nothing should be done to consolidate or keep Assad in power in Syria,” Mr. Hollande said at a press conference where he laid out his policy priorities for the next six months.
But the decision to bomb in Syria appears to reflect growing concern among French officials about Islamic State’s ability to mount a terrorist attack from its Syrian strongholds, where several hundred French citizens are believed to be fighting with the group. Mr. Hollande said reconnaissance flights over Islamic State positions in Syria would begin Tuesday to identify potential targets.
“Today, in Syria, what we want to know is, what is being prepared against us and what is being done against the Syrian populations,” Mr. Hollande said.
After those efforts, “we will be ready to conduct strikes,” he said.
Of particular concern are Islamic State’s efforts to boost its capabilities in areas such as passport forging that would help the group move fighters into Europe for an attack, said Jean-Luc Marret, research director at the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris-based defense think tank.
“You can see a sort of growing, systematic organization of [these activities],” Mr. Marret said. “That was not the case six months ago.”
The U.S. and Arab allies such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia have been bombing Islamic State’s positions in Syria for nearly a year, months after the group broke out of Syria and rampaged across northern Iraq. Those airstrikes helped defeat the group in some key battles, such as in the Syrian city of Kobane. But the attacks have been unable to shake Islamic State’s control of large swaths of Syrian territory.
Mr. Hollande struck a hopeful note on the conflict in Ukraine, calling for a summit in Paris with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Porochenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The peace agreement signed in Minsk earlier this year appears to be holding, Mr. Hollande said, possibly paving the way for Western sanctions against Russia to be lifted.
Mr. Hollande also used the press conference to outline his economic agenda, pledging tax cuts on households by at least €2 billion ($ 2.23 billion) in the 2016 budget. The cuts will affect around eight million French households and return taxation on individuals to a level similar to 2010, Mr. Hollande said.
“For me it was very important for middle classes to be the target of tax cuts,” the President said.
Mr. Hollande faces a stubborn popularity deficit with less than two years to the next elections and an unemployment rate over 10%. According to a survey of 1,002 by Ifop on Sept. 3 and Sept. 4, only 22% of French people want Mr. Hollande to stand for re-election in 2017. If the election took place now he would be knocked out in the first round.
Mr. Hollande angered voters by raising taxes sharply when he took office in 2012 and again in 2013; he backtracked partially in 2014 by pledging to cut business taxes in a bid to encourage investment and employment. But economic growth failed to rebound strongly last year, unemployment kept rising, and Mr. Hollande, a Socialist, faced a backlash from lawmakers in his own party who objected to the pro-business shift.
Mr. Hollande pledged Monday his policies would help deliver an acceleration in economic growth to 1.5% in 2016 from the 1% the government expects this year.
Opposition parties were quick to criticize Mr. Hollande’s plans.
“There is every reason to be cautious about these purely electoral and desperate announcements,” said Edouard Courtial, a member of former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center right party Les Républicains.
Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com and William Horobin at William.Horobin@wsj.com
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