In Thursday’s attack, delivery man Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed a 19-tonne truck into crowds of Bastille Day revelers, killing 84, before being shot dead by police.
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However, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said there was no direct evidence of the Tunisian’s links to the Islamic State group (IS) – which has claimed him as one of their “fighters”.
The security measure had been in place since the November 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 victims and were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The extension of extra search-and-arrest powers for police was approved by 489 votes to 26 against shortly before dawn in France’s National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
Some French people showed their frustration with the government by booing the prime minister in Nice.
In Nice, the seaside promenade that was targeted was re-opening to traffic, as flowers and tributes accumulated near the place where 84 people were killed and more than 300 injured last week.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who oversees terrorism investigations in France, said people interviewed by police described the Tunisian father of three as “someone who did not practice the Muslim religion, ate pork, drank alcohol, took drugs and had an unbridled sexual activity”.
Another 17 people were killed in January 2015 in attacks that began with the shooting of journalists working for Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that had published cartoons mocking Islam.
But on the city’s famed Promenade des Anglais, passers-by piled garbage on the bloodstained spot where Bouhlel was killed.
Many blame French President Hollande’s Socialist administration for not doing enough to prevent terrorism in the country that’s seen three major ISIS-inspired attacks in the past 18 months.
Meanwhile, three of six people detained in connection with the attack were brought to the French intelligence headquarters in Paris on Monday to face eventual terrorism charges.
From 1 July, Bouhlel had made internet searches for festivities in Nice and had driven the route of the attack two days prior to Bastille Day.
The government has defended its response to the jihadist threat, pointing to a raft of new anti-terror laws and the deployment of thousands of troops to patrol the streets.
One witness told authorities that Bouhlel seemed accustomed to looking at decapitation videos, Molins said.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says security forces foiled what could have been a “particularly deadly” terrorist attack shortly before Euro 2016. “I think they haven’t got the right answer”, a Nice resident Antony Fernandez said.
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On the other hand, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve refrained from getting involved in the rising controversy, however, said that the authorities did not at any moment display leniency or a slack in counterterrorism efforts.
