At a ceremony marking 10 years since the Paris attacks that killed 130 people, President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said France would do everything to stop any repeat of the violence, warning that the threat had changed even as the country remembered the lives lost.
“Everything will be done to prevent any new attack and to ruthlessly punish those who would dare to attempt it,” he said at the final commemoration ceremony at the Jardin du 13-Novembre, the new memorial garden opposite City Hall.
“Eighty-five attacks have been foiled in 10 years, including six this year.”
Macron said a decade of pressure had weakened Islamic State but warned of a jihadism that was “internal, insidious, less detectable, less predictable”.
He said “when terrorists want to strike democracy and freedom, it is France and Paris first and foremost that they target” and added that “the republic has held firm”.
He added that “unfortunately, there are no guarantees” attacks will end but insisted that “for those who take up arms against France, the response will be uncompromising”.
The commemorations opened with the bells of Notre Dame ringing to honour the victims of the shootings and bombings of 13 November 2015. The attacks were carried out by a 10-person cell linked to the Islamic State group.
At a central Paris ceremony, first responders read the names of those killed that Friday night and of two survivors who later took their own lives. Addressing relatives and survivors, Macron said: “Each of your pains is senseless, unjust, unbearable.”
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Remembering the victims
Around 90 people were killed at the Bataclan concert hall during a show by the US band Eagles of Death Metal. Dozens more died at cafes and restaurants, and one person was killed near the Stade de France, where France were playing Germany.
Earlier, Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal sang “You'll Never Walk Alone” with a choir made up of survivors and people who had lost loved ones.
Thursday’s ceremonies began at the Stade de France, where the family of the first person killed paid tribute.
Manuel Dias, a bus driver, died in the suicide bombings outside the venue. His daughter Sophie said: “We will never forget. They tell us to move on 10 years later, but the absence is immense.”
Residents gathered at the Place de la Republique with candles, flowers and notes. One visitor, Adrain Aggrey, said he laid flowers for the families “to show them we haven't forgotten”.
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Trials and scars
Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the cell, is serving life in jail. The other nine attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police.
Former president Francois Hollande told AFP: “France over these years has been able to stand united and overcome it all.” Hollande, who was at the Stade de France when the attacks began, later described the events as a “horror”.
He testified during the 148-day trial that ended in 2022. He said he told the defendants they had been given lawyers even though they had committed “the unforgivable”.
He added: “We are a democracy, and democracy always wins in the end.”
US-backed forces defeated the last remnants of the Islamic State proto-state in Syria and Iraq in 2019. The group had claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
Abdeslam is open to speaking to victims who want to take part in a “restorative justice” initiative, his lawyer Olivia Ronen said.
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Lives rebuilt
Some survivors have approached the tributes with apprehension. Stephane Sarrade, whose son Hugo, aged 23, was killed at the Bataclan, told AFP he avoids the site. “I am incapable of going there,” he said.
A museum is set to open in 2029 with around 500 objects linked to the attacks or the victims.
The planned Terrorism Memorial Museum will include a concert ticket donated by a mother who lost her only daughter at the Bataclan and the unfinished guitar of a luthier killed there.
It will also show a blackboard menu from La Belle Equipe, marked with bullet holes and still bearing the words “Happy Hour”.
(with newswires)
