“We are here 10 years later. » It was with these words that Emmanuel Macron began his speech at the ceremony honoring the victims of the attacks of November 13. “What happened is certainly irreparable,” said the head of state also in the memorial park in front of an audience consisting of officials and victims.
The President of the Republic first addressed the survivors of the terrorist attack. “Among you who rose, wounded in soul, flesh, and often stricken with guilt for still being there”, “those who lost children, parents (…) Their bodies and hearts are in tatters, their faces are sewn and re-stitched with this disturbing question: why”, said Emmanuel Macron.
Standing on the stage, in front of an olive tree, the president also paid tribute to all those who united in the face of terror: “People who took to the streets with first aid kits”, “It was our country that survived”, “thousands of French people who demonstrated”…
“The terrorists found many people braver than them,” he said. “France survived, the Republic survived, in the emergency, through fraternity, through justice, through love of life, we survived and everyone played their part, your life which they had rejected, reduced to status, has now become our life, universal,” he continued.
“These sons of free France”
The President of the Republic then praised “the world of culture, where we sing, where we dance, where we love the theater”, “you are the children of free France”, he told the survivors. That night, the terrorists “attacked places of sport, hospitality, art, places of freedom,” he added.
Jihadism, “we have done everything to contain it, to curb it, but it is reborn in another form” warned Emmanuel Macron. “Vigilance is permanent” and “our nation is the guarantor of continuous struggle carried out without ever denying the values of justice and freedom”, praised the President of the Republic further.
“We will continue to track” terrorists, “prevent excesses”, “85 attacks have been thwarted in ten years, including 6 attacks this year”, recalled the president. “Unfortunately, no one can guarantee an end to these attacks, but we can assure those who take up arms against France: the response will be difficult,” he added at the ceremony.
“Not a single life will be forgotten, not a single tear will be lost,” Emmanuel Macron finally promised. “We cannot give meaning to November 13, but we can give meaning to November 14, to your every tomorrow, to your every step, which, if taken from end to end, tells us a story of courage, mutual help and life,” he said.
The terrorists “want to sow death, you increase life”, “they want to divide, and we unite”, “we are here and we will stand by your side, again tomorrow, for you, for those who are no longer there, for their children”, concluded the president.
