France: hundreds of people pay a moving tribute to Samuel Paty
People crowd in front of a fresco produced in Éragny-sur-Oise in tribute to the teacher Samuel Paty, and inaugurated on October 16, 2021. AFP - ALAIN JOCARD
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Hundreds of people greeted, Saturday, October 16, the memory of Samuel Paty during a ceremony in Éragny-sur-Oise, this town of Val-d'Oise where the professor lived and was assassinated there is just one year.
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Like many residents of Eragny-sur-Oise, a peaceful city of 17,000 inhabitants north-west of Paris, Maguy, 75, and her friend Colette, both living near the scene of the tragedy, wanted to participate in the ceremony in tribute to the teacher Samuel Paty organized by the city, writes AFP: “
He lived here, he was killed here.
It is absolutely necessary to remember unfortunate things like that, this barbarism has upset us.
"
A fresco on freedom of expression
Before the official speeches, teenagers, 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. Then a fresco by the 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
".
“
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.
Ms. Pécresse, also a candidate for the LR nomination for the 2022 presidential election, asked that teachers be more "
supported
" in their mission.
A plaque in tribute to Samuel Paty
At the same time, in Paris, a plaque in tribute to Samuel Paty was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, at the Ministry of National Education, in the presence of his family.
Other tributes are paid this afternoon, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine where he taught, at the Elysee where his family will be received by Emmanuel Macron and in a square that the City of Paris will rename.
It is part of the republican ideal that has been targeted ...
Jean Castex, French Prime Minister
On 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. His 18-year-old murderer, a A radicalized Russian refugee of Chechen origin, accused him of showing caricatures of Muhammad in class, after a fake news campaign on social networks concerning his course.
He had been shot dead in Eragny by the police shortly after the attack.
(
with AFP
)
►
To read also: One year after the assassination of the teacher Samuel Paty, where is the investigation?
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