Paris (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron and his government have promised political responses "in the short and medium term" after the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty, to which tens of thousands of people paid tribute on Sunday.

The President of the Republic hammered it during a Defense Council: "Fear will change sides" and "Islamists must not be able to sleep peacefully in our country", reported the Elysee.

At the end of a 2h30 meeting in the evening with Jean Castex, five ministers as well as the anti-terrorist prosecutor Jean-François Richard, the president announced an "action plan" this week against "the structures, associations or people close to radicalized circles "and who spread calls to hatred and violence that could encourage attacks.

"Appropriate measures" after control of certain associations, while waiting for the bill against radical Islam which could be "enriched", "procedures" carried out on Monday against the authors of 80 messages of support for the aggressor of Samuel Paty do part of the measures taken initially.

Another axis that the Elysee wishes to develop, the establishment of a "counter-speech" with inaccurate words or radicalized propaganda, citing as an example the speech of Emmanuel Macron at Les Mureaux who was "misguided" in some countries to present it as an "anti-Muslim crusade".

More broadly, the whole of the political class hammered out messages of determination, the various political formations of the left calling for "national union" while the right wants to fight more head-on in the face of radical movements.

Chance of the calendar, the Senate must examine from Monday a bill LR, majority in the Upper House, which aims to include in the Constitution the preeminence of the rules of the Republic.

The project intends to enshrine, in article 1 of the Constitution, the principle according to which "no individual or no group may invoke his origin or his religion to exempt himself from the common rule".

- Strong mobilization of support -

In the meantime, the emotion provoked by this murder in the Yvelines does not weaken: tens of thousands of people gathered on Sunday all over France in homage to Mr. Paty.

Theater of the historic demonstration which had followed the attacks against Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher on January 11, 2015, the Place de la République in Paris was filled at the beginning of the afternoon with thousands of demonstrators, teachers, elected officials and anonymous people who came to defend freedom of expression, say no to "obscurantism" and sing the Marseillaise.

"I am there as a teacher, as a mother, as a Frenchwoman and as a Republican," said Virginie, 52, a music teacher from the Paris region.

Samuel Paty was beheaded on Friday around 5:00 p.m. near the college where he was teaching history and geography in a quiet area of ​​Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.

His assailant, an 18-year-old Russian Chechen born in Moscow, Abdullakh Anzorov, was then killed nine times by police.

On Twitter, he explained his gesture by saying he wanted revenge on the one "who dared to belittle Muhammad".

Other gatherings were held in the country.

Everywhere, long applause, Marseillaise, flowers and candles.

In Lyon, 12,000 people gathered at Place Bellecour according to the prefecture.

They were more than 3,000 in Strasbourg, 1,500 in Lille, 2,500 in Marseille and 2,000 in Montpellier.

The investigation continues its course, with an eleventh person, from the entourage of the alleged assassin, placed in police custody on Sunday morning, according to a judicial source.

The parents, who obtained political asylum in France ten years ago, the killer's grandfather and little brother, as well as members of his close entourage were arrested on Friday evening by the police and were found still in custody on Sunday.

The father of a student of the victim and a very active Islamist activist known to the police, Abdelhakim Sefrioui, were also arrested and had still been questioned since Saturday.

The two men had started a mobilization campaign to denounce the teacher's initiative to show his 4th year class the caricatures of Mohammed as part of a course on freedom of expression, and called for his dismissal from college.

Investigators are now seeking to identify possible links between these two men and the killer.

Was he "piloted" or did he decide to go after the professor on his own?

© 2020 AFP