Prime Minister Gabriel Attal paid tribute to victims of terrorism at a ceremony in the northern French town of Arras this Monday, where a teacher, Dominique Bernard, was killed five months ago by a former pupil with a record of Islamist radicalisation.
Attal, who previously held the post of Education Minister requested that the annual ceremony commemorating victims of terrorism be held in the town of Arras, to pay tribute to French teacher Dominique Bernard, who was stabbed to death on 13 October 2023.
Upon his arrival at the school this Monday, Attal spoke with pupils and teachers, to reiterate the nation's support for them five months after the tragedy.
This is the first time the ceremony has been held outside of Paris, where President Emmanuel Macron usually presides over the annual tribute at Les Invalides.
Bernard's murder came three years after the killing of another teacher, history-geography teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded near his school in the Yvelines on 16 October 2020 after showing his pupils cartoons of Mohammed during lessons on freedom of expression.
Les terroristes détestent l'École.
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) March 11, 2024
Car l'École est notre plus grande force pour bâtir un avenir de concorde, de civisme, de paix et de respect.
Et c'est tout ce qu'incarnait Dominique Bernard. pic.twitter.com/0S3GK4j1iZ
School is a strength
School is the "best weapon" for fighting terrorists, Attal said in his commemoration address.
"Terrorists hate school, and that's normal: school is the best weapon with which to fight them. School is our greatest strength in building a future of harmony, civic-mindedness, peace and respect," the Prime Minister told several hundred guests.
"It is the victory of the school that will sound the death knell of obscurantism, of all obscurantisms, of Islamist obscurantism that wants to destroy our school for its values," he added. "We will fight and we will win."
This Monday's tribute has also taken on a European dimension, being held on the anniversary of the Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004, in which 192 people were killed.
