France marked the tenth anniversary of the deadly attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo today, with ceremonies honoring the victims and reaffirming the publication’s commitment to freedom of expression. The newspaper, known for its anarchistic and anti-clerical stance, had been a target of jihadist threats since it published controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.
At 11:30 AM, the exact time of the attack on January 7, 2015, a memorial gathering took place at the site of the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris’ 11th arrondissement. Relatives of the victims and various public figures attended the ceremony. Names of the victims were read aloud, wreaths were laid, bells rang, a moment of silence was observed, and the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, was played.
The event was heavily secured by the police.
Among those present was Charlie Hebdo’s director, Riss, who was severely wounded during the attack. Also attending were President Emmanuel Macron, former President François Hollande (who was in office during the attack), Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Prime Minister François Bayrou, and several members of the current and former government.
“The sorrow is the same, the emotions are also the same,” said Paris’ former prosecutor François Molins, adding that the “spirit of Charlie Hebdo” has not disappeared.
Macron spent several minutes speaking with the victims’ families, away from the press.
The commemoration then continued with a ceremony on the boulevard where police officer Ahmed Merabet was killed.
A further tribute was paid at 1:10 PM in another part of Paris, where four people were killed in an attack on a Jewish store on January 9, 2015.
The attackers, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, stormed the Charlie Hebdo office on January 7, 2015, killing 12 people. The killers were later shot dead, and Charlie Hebdo, which continues to publish satirical content, now operates from an undisclosed location under constant police protection.
Among those killed were cartoonist Charb, along with two other French cartooning legends, Cabu and Wolinski. Other victims included draftsman Tignous, psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, journalist Bernard Maris, and proofreader Mustapha Ourrad.
To mark the occasion, Charlie Hebdo released a special edition.
“Satire has the virtue that helped us get through these tragic years, and that is optimism. If we want to laugh, it is because we want to live. Laughter, irony, and caricature are expressions of optimism. No matter what happens, dramatically or happily, the desire for laughter will never disappear,” wrote Riss in the editorial, reflecting on the last decade, which he described as having been marked by a “worsening geopolitical situation.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed solidarity on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Germany “shares the pain of our French friends.”
“This barbaric attack was aimed at our shared values of freedom and democracy – we will never accept this,” said Scholz.
The attack ten years ago sparked international outrage and led to the widespread slogan of support, Je suis Charlie.
Support rallies on January 11, 2015, drew nearly four million people across France, with many foreign heads of state and government leaders joining the Paris procession.
Just months after the Charlie Hebdo attack, on November 13, 2015, three suicide bombers simultaneously attacked Paris. The first struck near a football stadium during a match, the second outside the Bataclan concert hall during a performance, and the third outside several restaurants. More than 130 people were killed, and over 400 were injured, with the majority of casualties—90—occurring at the Bataclan.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for all the attacks.
