Emmanuel Macron said Thursday, the day of the start of the school year, to have "
a special thought
" for Samuel Paty, the teacher who had been beheaded by an Islamist terrorist in October 2020 after showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students.
"
I have a very special thought for the parents and colleagues of Samuel Paty,
" said the head of state at the end of a short video recorded in Marseille to mark the start of the school year.
"
No one has forgotten
" this drama, which "
reminds us how much the beautiful teaching profession is at the heart of the nation, of our pact for our children and all of us
," he added.
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An “exceptional mobilization” of teachers and parents of students
Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded on October 16 near his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young Chechen refugee who murdered him for showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students.
In the video, Emmanuel Macron affirms that the government is "
doing the maximum to make this return to school as normal as possible
" despite the Covid-19 pandemic, welcoming "
the exceptional mobilization
" of teachers and parents of students.
The Head of State also briefly showed a portrait of the two star Youtubers "McFly & Carlito" to call on young people to be vaccinated and to respect barrier gestures.
Emmanuel Macron had received them at the Elysee Palace in May after their video defending barrier gestures had reached 10 million views. At the end of the video, it is addressed to students who feel “
a little anguish on the morning of the start of the school year
”. “
I hope that this anguish will be dispelled tonight. Good luck,
”he concludes.