An oceanic crowd, which grew with the passing of the hours, well over a million people and perhaps even two million, marched at the republican march in Paris.
THE HEADS OF STATE LEAVE
In the first half hour at the head of the procession, 50 heads of state and government shook the arm of French President François Hollande to testify that Europe and the world "are Charlie" and are against terrorism. This was the part with the greatest historical impact with the world leaders leaving arm in arm with Hollande who, after about twenty minutes and after observing a minute's silence, dismissed and thanked them. The procession then continued and the crowd continued to grow as the hours went by, so much so that the Prefecture itself declared that it was in difficulty in attempting an estimate of attendance, albeit approximate: such a crowd had never been seen since the Liberation, they observed some participants while in the rest of France other marches involved no less than 500-600 thousand people. The march was an "unprecedented" event, the Interior Ministry declared, which did not provide figures but specified, while the demonstration was still underway, that "the demonstrators scattered over a much larger area than that foreseen". A huge deployment of police and military forces ensured security.
PARIS CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
"Today Paris is the capital of the world," said Hollande and it wasn't a cliche given the impressive number of world leaders who wanted to be present at the march that wound from the Place de la République to the Palce de la Nation. "Our values are stronger than their threats, we are here to say that we will not stop, we will not let their threats stop us," said Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. In the front row were the German Angela Merkel, the British David Cameron, the EU president Jean-Claude Junker, together with the Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president Abu Mazen divided but close or in any case brought together by the jihadist danger.
But many others took sides: the Belgian premier Charles Michel, the Dutchman Mark Rutte and the Danish Helle Thorning Schmidt, the Spanish Mariano Rajoy. And then the prime ministers of Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg and Sweden. The Swiss president was present, but also delegations from Turkey, Mali, Arab and African countries. There are King Abdullah of Jordan, Nigerian President Jonathan grappling with the brutal terrorism of Boko Haram and there are the sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates. On the other hand, there is no one to represent the US: neither President Obama, nor Vice President Biden nor Undersecretary of State Kerry.
THOUSAND FACES
The thousand faces of the procession in which a huge pencil with the inscription "Not afraid" was not missing, also saw in the first section the families of the 17 victims of the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher hypermarket. Just an employee of the shop, Lassana Bathily, who with enormous courage saved a dozen hostages by locking themselves in the cold room with them, was recognized and applauded by the crowd.
SLOGAN AND MARSEILLAISE
Many slogans were shouted at the top of their lungs by the immense procession: "Nous sommes tous Charlie" was among the most repeated together with "Liberté, égalité, dessinez, écrivez". Or “I'm Charlie, Jew, policeman”. Many placards: "Muslim friends, the fanatics have taken your religion hostage"; "It is the ink that must flow, not the blood". "For peace and against terrorism". Twitter was invaded by messages on the hashtag #marcherepublicaine: "I am a Muslim and I am Charlie", one among many. And the Marseillaise, the French national anthem, served as the soundtrack to the event.
INTERIOR MINISTERS SUMMIT
Romano Prodi was also among the participants in the demonstration: "Today's demonstration opens up hope and is a moment of emotion, we all feel close to the French", he observed, but translating all this into politics "and into common action it's a big leap." However, the European interior ministers tried to define the first interventions to intensify the fight against terrorism and met in a summit in Paris, before the demonstration. Several measures are underway: speeding up the use of the reservation code – the Pnr – by airlines for anti-terrorism purposes; feed an online "counter-rhetoric" strategy to counter recruitment dynamics; increase the exchange of information between countries. The possibility of modifying the Schengen treaty, as Spain wishes, was also discussed with the French government which, through the mouth of Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, said it was ready to put its hand on the contents of the convention. But the proposal was rejected by the Italian minister Angelino Alfano: “Schengen is a great achievement of freedom that cannot be given to terrorists. We will strengthen the Schengen information system but we cannot back down on these conquests of freedom". The state of alert for security, even in Italy, "is maximum" assured the minister.
NOT ONLY FRANCE
Demonstrations were also held in London, Stockholm, Berlin, Madrid. In Italy, demonstration in Milan in front of the French consulate while in Rome the French and European flags of the Embassy at Palazzo Farnese, which had been lowered at half-mast after the tragedy, were hoisted again half an hour after the start of the Paris procession: “Today the world stands up for freedom”.
