‘People are a lot more wary’



On my way home today I walked passed a patrol of armed soldiers, and I was suddenly surprised by how normal that has become to me. They’ve definitely become part of the scenery in Paris, and are part of a new ‘France at war’ vocabulary along with ‘Vigipirate’ [France’s national security alert system].

Security levels in public places have been heightened and I think people were, and perhaps still are, a lot more wary. About two months after the attacks a car back-fired and people threw themselves to the ground. Personally, I had a hard time going out to concerts and big events for a while, and even now, I have to scout out the fire escape when I get there.



My friend was killed at the Bataclan last year and I still can’t get used to that. He was a good, kind person, accepting of everyone and brimming with potential. There’s not a day where I don’t think about that and feel angry, sad and bereft.

Roisin, 30, Paris



‘The attacks are being exploited’



I used to often spend Saturday nights near the Republic square (near the Bataclan) and I was shocked to see how empty it was, months after the attacks. I also surprise myself everytime I go as I can’t prevent myself to stop at the Square for a moment and to feel sad.

It did change my relationships with others, especially with some friends as I come from a town in the suburbs which has a lot of immigrants making up the population, with adiversity of origins. Debates about what happened and what is still happening are part of our daily life and some friends don’t have the same opinions as me. Some people I thought I knew started to call for war, or to call refugees animals because they thought they were terrorists, having really racist thoughts. And Istopped talking to some very good friends of mine because what they said really hurt me. My father being Muslim himself, I got personally offended by what’s been said by some people.

I think the attacks are being exploited by politicians to win the upcoming presidential elections. They just scare people and hope to win like this, and there’s now no difference between the parties as they just all target Muslims.

Romana Bekkai, Paris, 22

‘The nationalism is scary’



Politically, France is in an utter mess and has been for a long time. The Front National have made gains accross the country (less so in Paris itself), monopolising on the magnanimous fear since the attcks, and the left is too disorganised to do anything about it. The fact that veteran leftist Jean-Luc Mélanchon is putting himself forward once again for the next elections speaks volumes about the lack of progress made by socialism in the past few years here. People are exasperate by the Parti Socialiste. Their handling of the Loi du Travail protests was disasterous.

The country is currently having an identity crisis. Far-right politicians have been saying that France is the home of secularism in the same breath as saying that France is a Catholic country, what they really seem to be getting at is “we don’t want Muslims here”.

The levels of nationalism being stoked by even the centre-right politicians is scary. Nicolas Sarkozy’s obsession with referencing the Gauls as the “true Frenchman” is as nauseating as it is historically inaccurate.

Theo Radford, 24, Paris

I can’t really tell if it’s resilience or simply numbness

It’s hard to say there’s been a real change. The country has rocked and swayed, but its foundations are solid. It feels more like what a quake, or the crash of plane, does: strong reactions at first, slowly dwindling out. One year later, you can’t deny something did happen, but the scar is faint, if not invisible: the Bataclan is poised to re-open, the various cafés already have; people have resumed their normal lives. Paris looks the same it was before those appalling events. It has healed.

We may be seeing more cops and soldiers patrolling in the streets, but it’s not that striking. If a change has taken place, it is happening at a deeper level. And while it’s true the emergency state has been extended, there hasn’t been any report of real abuses, though some may have flared up every so often

I can’t really tell if it’s resilience or simply numbness and resignation. As a matter of fact, if the purpose of the attacks was to spread terror, then it hasn’t panned out. People are both willing to resist and fatalist: if something must happen, it will happen, and there’s hardly anything you can do to prevent it, so the best course is to carry on as before and be oblivious of the danger. Which is the right path to tread.

Vincent, 47, Paris



‘France has changed dramatically since the attacks’

France has changed dramatically since the attacks. During Euro 2016 there was this fear of mass gatherings and the possibility of an attack. Politically too, France has changed. Politicians had been making a discourse out of what it means to be French for years. But since the attacks, every party and every politician has something to say, good and for bad. The whole political debate gravitates around what defines the fundamentals of French society and on what kind of social contract we all rely.

My biggest hope for France is too stay united and not to get lost in adversity . I wish that we can continue to live with different cultures, especially in a city as mixed as Marseille.

Luca Augé, 20, Marseille



‘The most relevant think is the rise of Islamophobia’



Since the Paris attacks, every day I hear conversations about Muslims whereas it was not the case before. When I talk about politics with my friends, the first issue they mention is immigration. The migrant crisis which Europe is facing has bolstered this atmosphere.



The most relevant thing is the rise of islamophobia. Politically, the National Front takes advantage of it. In the little town where I live near Angers, 20% of the inhabitants voted for them at the last regional election. Usually, it is a Christian democratic town. I was at the counting after the election with my father and the mayor told us ‘’I can’t believe 20% of the population I administer vote for them. I’m taken aback’’. We also were. And it is far worse in other regions.



In the wake of the attacks, a French rapper, Kery James, released a song in which he says “we have no choice now, we have to live together or to die together”. It is exactly what I feel. If our country is divided then they have won. The terrorists want the National Front to win the election next year, they want to divide the nation. Quite the opposite, I would like to see a united country which has no scapegoats

Lucas Raimbault, 18, Angers

‘France is doing very poorly’



I’m not feeling very optimistic. The coming presidential elections will make the latest American one seem like a walk in the park. There is so much frustration and degradation in all our instutions that I don’t see how this could end well. I don’t buy those wonderful resilient stories we are bombarded with. France is doing very poorly.



I teach young adults, and those last two years, I’ve felt many of them are struggling, financially, family-wise, and even psychologically. But for some, the latest events and the current state of society have been a wake-up call. They want to vote, they want to be involved, and that’s a good thing.

Marie, 47, Normandy

