Less insouciant, more policed — France is a changed place since Islamic State militants killed 130 people in the country’s deadliest attacks a year ago. Fearing it is becoming more divided, survivors and victims’ families marked Sunday’s anniversary of the violence by pleading for national unity instead.
Tourism is hurting, armed forces roam streets and France is still under a state of emergency that rights groups call abusive and ineffective — and that the French prime minister now says might be extended yet again.
“We always have this fear that weighs heavily in our hearts. We always try to be careful. And every time we pass by here, we think of them,” said Sabrina Nedjadi, paying respects on Sunday at two cafes in her eastern Paris neighborhood targeted in the attacks.
At midday, hundreds of balloons were released to honor the memories of the victims; at dusk, paper lanterns were released into the Canal Saint-Martin, bearing red, white and blue lights representing the French tricolor. Onlookers lined the canal and surrounding bridges.
Some fear that France itself is adrift, its government unable to defeat the amorphous extremist enemy even as authorities encroach on liberties the French hold dear.
While French warplanes are targeting Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria, the state of emergency in France allows broadened police powers to search homes and monitor communications.
However, it could not prevent further attacks in France over the past year, including a truck rampage in Nice by a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group.
“Yes, terrorism will strike us again,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said over the weekend.
“France is now in a situation where an ‘exceptional’ regime is becoming permanent, in the name of combating terrorism, but there is little evidence that this approach is working and it comes at a cost to fundamental rights,” the International Federation for Human Rights said in a recent report.
As silence descended on Sunday in Paris for a series of commemorations, the son of the first victims of the attacks spoke out for tolerance in the face of hate.
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