Some in the crowd booed Valls before and after the silence, including as he laid tributes to the dead.
Critics claim the government is not doing enough to protect French citizens, after this latest massacre which killed 84 people last Thursday on the Promenade des Anglais. ISIL said it was responsible.
National unity followed the Charlie Hebdo and Paris attacks but the Nice bloodshed has triggered tensions, especially among political rivals ahead of next year’s presidential election.
At the Interior Ministry In Paris, President Francois Hollande and his Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve marked the silence, observed throughout France on the third and final day of mourning declared after the killings.
Public faith in the ability of Hollande’s Socialist government to combat terrorism has plummeted in the wake of the truck attack, a new opinion poll suggests.
Just 33 percent of those questioned for the poll, published in Le Figaro newspaper are confident that the current leadership can meet the challenge.(Euronews)