«Indestructible!», indestructible. It is the title that Charlie Hebdo chose for the front page of the special edition to commemorate the 10 years since the bloody attack on its editorial officein Paris. On January 7, 2015, the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, French of Algerian origin, broke into the headquarters of the satirical magazine armed with AK-47 rifles, shouting “Allah Akbar” and shot journalists and cartoonists. There were twelve deaths, including 8 employees of the magazine.
Tomorrow a 32-page issue will be released with a collection of the 40 best caricatures of God among the 350 received in the international competition launched at the end of last year. “The desire to laugh will never die,” we read.
“Satire has a virtue that has helped us overcome these tragic years: optimism,” wrote director Riss (pseudonym of Laurent Sourisseau) in his editorial. «If we want to laugh, we want to live. Laughter, irony, caricature are signs of optimism”, he continued.
A commemoration ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, at 11.30, in which, among others, French President Emmanuel Macron, most of the ministers and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will participate. “Terrorism is a danger that still lurks in our societies and this means that we cannot loosen our grip but we must be vigilant,” said Macron, speaking to the French ambassadors today.
