Dear subscribers, dear loyal readers,
In
Figaro Magazine
also, we weigh the weight of the words and we know what the shock of the photos represents.
It is therefore with full knowledge of the facts that we have chosen to give our cover of the week a meaningful title, which slams like a cry of indignation and a desire for justice at the same time.
This title "A State Scandal" - is accompanied by a black and white photo, which most French people know since it is one of the rare portraits available of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was cowardly slaughtered, then beheaded, by a Russian Islamist of Chechen origin on October 16, 2020. The motive for this despicable assassination?
In support of his course on freedom of expression, the professor of
Charlie Hebdo
- caricatures which had already, at the time, led to retaliation for a mass killing committed in the name of Islam.
One of the few available portraits of Samuel Paty.
ABACA
“A state scandal”.
Yes, we have weighed each word of this title after having read the book that journalist Stéphane Simon devotes to this tragedy, entitled
The Last Days of Samuel Paty
(Plon), a work from which we publish very large extracts exclusively, accompanied by a long interview with the author.
Because what does this book show?
That all this horror could have been avoided, if the French state - namely the intelligence services and the administration of National Education - had done its job as Samuel Paty did his.
The conclusions of the long investigation conducted by Stéphane Simon are, indeed, overwhelming.
While the assassin (as well as the other members of his family) had been reported on several occasions for his calls for jihad on social networks, the DGSI (General Directorate of Internal Security) and the territorial intelligence services did not saw nothing coming.
On October 12, four days before the assassination of Samuel Paty, the state services were fully aware of the viral threats made on the web against the teacher.
Nevertheless,
The other administration in question is that of the Ministry of National Education.
Again, Samuel Paty's hierarchy did not take full measure of the threats hanging over the official.
At the height of the alerts and threats received every day by the establishment or released on the web, the ministry, the rectorate, the principal of the college could have - and should - have instructed the teacher to stand back while the matter calms down.
Through laziness, unconsciousness or willful blindness, none of this was done.
But the most shocking is undoubtedly the attitude of the colleagues of Samuel Paty.
We thus learn in Stéphane Simon's book that a meeting of professors degenerates into a lawsuit against the history-geography professor just a few days before his assassination.
In other words, not only Paty's work colleagues disassociate themselves from him, but some of them go so far as to accuse him of having made a mistake by presenting his students with caricatures of Muhammad.
Cowardice, hypocrisy, abandonment and non-assistance to anyone in danger: the teaching staff of the college of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine did not show themselves up to their mission and bears a heavy responsibility in the death of their colleague, preferring , as too often in our country, close our eyes to Islamism in action.
By its symbolic significance, the assassination of Samuel Paty appears, with the murders of Father Hamel and Colonel Beltrame, among the most despicable committed in the name of Islam.
It is all the more unsustainable in that it could have been avoided if the State services had functioned correctly.
It is indeed a “state scandal”.
To defend freedom of expression, as Samuel Paty wanted to do, is to defend freedom period.
This freedom, alas always threatened, can take on other faces, as shown by the essayists Nicolas Baverez and Mathieu Bock-Côté whom we had debated on the theme “How to save liberal democracy?”
The thesis of Nicolas Baverez, who has just published
Democracies against authoritarian empires
(L'Observatoire), is that political freedom is now in danger, just as democracies are today threatened by the return of dreams of empire and the desire for expansionism of autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Recep Erdogan, Ayatollah Khamenei or Kim Jong-un.
Mathieu Bock-Côté, he is worried, in
The Racialist Revolution and other ideological viruses
(Presses de la Cité), of another authoritarian empire, which is developing within the West itself, and which can take on different faces: that of wokism (i.e. the culture of effacement), of the dictatorship of minorities, or even of the government of judges which too often goes against the will and the sovereignty of the people.
The fascinating confrontation of their points of view can be read in our section entitled Free Spirits, this space for reflection dedicated to ideas.
But the
Figaro Magazine
would not be the
Figaro Magazine
if it did not also allow its readers to escape each week.
In France, first, with a report dedicated to the Ecrins National Park, but also abroad, thanks to a major report on the roads leading to Kathmandu.
The Écrins National Park celebrates its half-centenary this year.
Fifth national park in France when it was created in 1973, it quickly established itself as a biodiversity sanctuary, bringing together no less than 4,000 species of plants and animals.
In addition to being a sort of natural museum conservatory, the Ecrins have acquired a new informal status for several years due to global warming.
As our reporter writes, “
the Ecrins are proving to be a barometer territory, a sentinel, an observatory overexposed to climate change and, perhaps, a privileged space of transition.
Here, the melting ice is visible to the naked eye - glaciers changing and changing faster than sea ice.
The researchers estimate that the Glacier Blanc could have disappeared within thirty years.
The consequences on the fauna and flora of mountain pastures would be dramatic.
Pastoralism could even be doomed in the medium term.
The Écrins massif is indeed a real water tower.
Les Écrins is considered a water tower, but for how long?
Olivier CORET / DIVERGENCE
The Kathmandu Valley is also surrounded by ridges, passes and mountain ranges, where countless walks and hikes are possible.
We come here to experience the trek, of course, to try to find the emotions and aesthetics of the cohorts of hippies of the
Peace and Love years.
, or to meditate on the meaning of the sacred and human destiny.
In this valley overlooked by the Himalayan range, more than 3,000 temples, palaces and pagodas are spread over an area of 600 square kilometers.
That is to say the greatest concentration of monuments in all of Asia, which however does not lack them.
Over there, the Hindus and the Buddhists of Nepal walk (a lot), prostrate themselves (often) or contemplate the summits which one wants to believe covered with eternal snow.
For how long ?
Because, in Nepal as in France, a race against time is engaged with global warming.
Sunrise on the Dorje Lhakpa culminating at 6799 meters.
Bruno Morandi for Le Figaro Magazine
Finally, the
Figaro Magazine
must regularly offer its readers a major subject of art or culture.
This week, we have chosen to show you the superb exhibition currently dedicated to Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet.
You have to rush to the Musée d'Orsay to admire some one hundred and forty paintings by the two impressionist painters, who were united by a brief friendship.
Coming from major institutions or private collections, these masterpieces by two painters from the enlightened bourgeoisie tell us a story of France, that of the 19th century, which seems, with hindsight, to have calmed down, despite the social tensions that existed. Already…
AND ALSO :
The two sentences of the number to remember:
The problem facing the West today concerns the survival of political freedom
Nicolas Baverez, page 36
Those who are called populists are perhaps closer to what has traditionally been called liberal democracy than those who claim to defend it against parties that threaten it from within.
Mathieu Bock-Cote, page 36
The photo to keep in mind:
The city is one of the epicenters of the war between Zelensky's troops and Putin's army.
In Donetsk, the Ukrainians continue to valiantly defend their positions against the enemy.
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
Heroes are ageless
.
In the Donbass, while waiting for the Ukrainian offensive promised for the spring, soldiers of all ages and conditions are preparing for battle.
This veteran with the white pope mustache is on the lookout.
Behind him, the young guard is ready for relief.
Can we better illustrate the strength of the patriotic feeling that unites most Ukrainians?
