Hundreds of people greeted this Saturday the memory of Samuel Paty during a ceremony in Eragny-sur-Oise, town of Val-d'Oise where the professor lived and was assassinated just a year ago.

“He lived here, he was killed here.

It is absolutely necessary to remember unfortunate things like that, this barbarism has upset us, ”says Maguy, 75, approved by her friend Colette, both living near the scene of the tragedy.

Like many residents of this peaceful city located northwest of Paris, they were keen to participate in the ceremony organized by the City in front of a gymnasium.

Before the speeches, teenage members of the municipal youth council spoke at the podium.

“We had the idea of ​​reading a text on freedom of expression” that we wrote, explained Thaïs-Anne, 14 years old.

A fresco by artist Alexandre Sarrat was then unveiled.

On the wall of the gymnasium there is notably a quote from Victor Hugo: "Freedom begins where ignorance ends".

"In the face of fanaticism, forgetting and compromise are impossible"

“Education is the most powerful weapon in the world,” insisted Thibault Humbert, the (Free!) Mayor of Eragny-sur-Oise.

In his speech, he called for “rolling back a deadly ideology” that led to this “absurd cabal”.

“Samuel Paty embodied the word of the Republic in front of the youth (…).

Faced with fanaticism, forgetting and compromise are impossible, ”continued Valérie Pécresse, president (Libres!) Of the Ile-de-France region.

Valérie Pécresse, also a candidate for the LR nomination for the 2022 presidential election, asked that teachers be more "supported" in their mission.

At the same time, in Paris, a plaque in tribute to Samuel Paty was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jean Castex at the Ministry of National Education, in the presence of his family.

Other tributes will be paid this Saturday afternoon, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine where he taught, at the Elysée Palace where his family will be received by Emmanuel Macron and in a square that the City of Paris will rename.

Friday, schools, colleges and high schools all over France had honored the memory of the history-geography teacher, stabbed and beheaded in the middle of the afternoon, in the street, on October 16, 2020.

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