Ten years ago, on January 7th, 2015, an Islamist attack sowed terror in Paris, targeting the editorial offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, claiming many victims. Commemoration ceremonies have been organised in the capital, bringing together municipal authorities and representatives of the state.
On January 7th, 2015, two Islamists, brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, burst into the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo heavily armed, killing 12 people. Their aim was to punish the newspaper for publishing cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed that were deemed scandalous. Some of the paper’s leading figures were killed, including cartoonists Charb, Cabu and Tignous, all well-known figures in the French journalistic landscape. Police officer Ahmed Merabet was the 13th victim of the Kouachi brothers, shot dead by the terrorists as they fled the Charlie Hebdo office.
The attack on January 7th was followed up in the days after. On January 8th, gunfire erupted in the morning in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine. A municipal policewoman, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, was killed by Amedy Coulibaly, a close associate of the Kouachi brothers. Finally, on January 9th, Coulibaly took hostage customers of the Hyper Cacher Jewish store at Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris. Claiming to be acting in the name of Islamic State, the terrorist targeted people of the Jewish faith and expressed his solidarity with the terrorists who had targeted Charlie Hebdo. After four hours of hostage-taking, the terrorist was shot dead by the police, after killing four supermarket customers himself. The same day, the Kouachi brothers, on the run, were caught up with by an elite unit, the Gendarmerie Nationale’s GIGN (Gendarmerie Intervention Group) and eliminated.
Three parts are scheduled for the ceremonies on the morning of January 7th. The ceremonies are due to begin at 11.30 am at number 10 rue Nicolas Appert, in the 11th arrondissement, the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, with a tribute to the murdered journalists and cartoonists.
A second stage will take the political representatives a short distance away, to boulevard Richard Lenoir, for a tribute to police lieutenant Ahmed Merabet.
The third stage will take place in the early afternoon in the 20th arrondissement, in memory of the victims of the final phase of the terrorist attack, the Hyper Cacher hostage-taking.
The families expressly asked for the ceremonies to be sober and discreet: there will be a reading of the commemorative plaques placed at the site; a laying of wreaths; a minute’s silence and the singing of the Marseillaise. The ceremonies will be attended by Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, President Emmanuel Macron, and the new prime minister François Bayrou.
Over the last few days, and especially today (January 7th), there has been an outpouring of tributes on social media, both in France and abroad, from personalities from all sides. Ursula von der Leyen said on X that the victims represented “the values of France and Europe.” On the Right, Bruno Retailleau, the current minister of the interior, unambiguously asserted the heritage: “Je suis Charlie. Freedom of expression and the French free and critical spirit are our identity. Nothing has changed,” he declared on RTL, before insisting on the topicality of the terrorist threat in France today: nine attacks were foiled on French territory in 2024. David Lisnard of the right-wing Nouvelle Energie party pointed out that Charlie’s fight needed to be constantly renewed, for example by defending the writer Boualem Sansal, who is still imprisoned by the Algerian government.
Socialist Manuel Valls, Prime Minister at the time of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, reminded BFM TV that, as then, “we are at war.” “The United States has just been hit, and a few days ago it was Germany. The threat exists in the Netherlands, in Great Britain, in Spain…,” he added, before explaining: “Islamism is playing the long game in order to strike at Western democracies.” Marine Le Pen also reiterated on X that the war against Islamist terrorism was far from over.
Some statements by left-wing personalities also came in for criticism, such as the post by Green MP Sandrine Rousseau: “Être Charlie. Toujours,” (Being Charlie, Always)—in contradiction with a statement she made in 2022, saying that “there are limits to caricature.”
Emmanuel Macron confirmed his intention to build a Memorial to Terrorism, a project launched in 2018 that is still awaiting completion.
