Paris (AFP)
Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged the French to "block" and promised "a relentless fight (...) against Islamist terrorism" during the tribute to the four officials killed in the attack at the police headquarters in Paris.
"Your colleagues have fallen under the blows of a misguided and deadly Islam that it is up to us to eradicate", launched the head of state, calling "the whole nation" to "mobilize" face to "Islamist hydra", and praising "the irreducible French spirit of resistance".
In a 15-minute speech to many politicians, including members of the government, the head of state said that "the institutions alone will not be enough" to "overcome the Islamist hydra" . "It is the entire nation that must unite, mobilize to act," he added.
"A society of vigilance, that's what we have to build, the vigilance and not the suspicion that corrodes, the vigilance, the attentive listening of the other, the reasonable awakening of the consciences", continued Emmanuel Macron, calling to "know how to identify at school, at work, in places of worship, close to home, the laxity, the deviations, these small gestures that signal a departure from the laws and values of the Republic".
"Too often we talked, made laws and came back everyday, as if nothing had happened," he regretted in the police headquarters court, after bowing to the coffins of the four victims.
"This is in no way a fight against a religion," he continued, "but against his misuse that leads to terrorism."
Emmanuel Macron was to meet with the families of the victims at the end of the ceremony.
JRI-leb-grd-ggy / cs / shu
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