Hollande warns against hatred at tribute to WWII resistance fighters
President François Hollande called on the French people to stand up to fanatacism, racism and anti-Semitism at a ceremony to honour four World War II resistance fighters at the Panthéon in Paris on Wednesday.
Issued on:
"Today France has a rendezvous with the best of herself," Hollande said as he paid tribute to Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz, Pierre Brossolette, Germaine Tillion and Jean Zay as they were officially interred in the historic building.
Hollande compared the resistance to German occupation to the massive demonstration that followed January's Charlie Hebdo killings.
"Seventy years later these hatreds are returning, they strike the innocent, journalists, Jews, police officers, and it was to ward off this dismal resurgence that the French people rose up on 11 January," he declared.
Appealing to the spirit of national unity shown on the massive Paris march, Hollande said that "communists, Gaullists, socialists, radicals and even royalists" had joined the wartime resistance.
"Indifference, that's today's enemy," he said. "Indifference in the face of fanatacism, racism and anti-Semitism."
Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning
Subscribe