Emmanuel Macron during the Forum pour la paix, in Paris on November 12, 2020. -

ELIOT BLONDET-POOL / SIPA

Emmanuel Macron does not change his line: France will not make concessions on the caricatures.

The Head of State even regrets this Monday the relative timidity of international support after the latest attacks in the country, and reaffirms that France was not going to "change" its right to freedom of expression "because it shocks elsewhere ".

In an interview published by the online review

Le Grand Continent

, the Head of State notes that, "five years ago, when we killed those who made caricatures, the whole world marched in Paris and defended these rights" .

“There we had a teacher slaughtered, several people slaughtered.

Many condolences were modest, ”he underlines, referring to the death of Professor Samuel Paty on October 16 and three people in Nice on October 29.

"This shocks me"

“And,” he continues, “we have had, in a structured way, political and religious leaders from one part of the Muslim world - who nevertheless intimidated the other, I have to admit - saying: 'they did not only to change their rights ".

This shocks me ”.

The Head of State thus refers to the calls to demonstrate against France and himself launched in several Muslim countries after his remarks defending the right to caricature made during the national tribute to Samuel Paty.

For Emmanuel Macron, “it is precisely because hatred is prohibited in our European values, that the dignity of the human person prevails over the rest, that I can shock you, because you can shock me in return.

We can debate and argue about it because we will never come to grips with it since it is forbidden and human dignity is superior to anything ”.

But "we are in the process of accepting that leaders, religious leaders, put a system of equivalence between what is shocking and a representation, and the death of a man and the fact of being a terrorist - they have done it -, and that we are intimidated enough not to dare to condemn this, ”he continues.

Europe's “fight” for freedoms

“Do not let ourselves be locked in the camp of those who do not respect differences.

It's a false trial and a manipulation of history, ”reacts Emmanuel Macron.

Therefore, “the fight of our generation in Europe will be a fight for our freedoms.

Because they are changing, ”he warns in this interview with the journal edited by the Geopolitical Studies Group, an independent association domiciled at the École normale supérieure (ENS).

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