Europe has left my France alone to fight everyone’s war

Paris, November 13 2015: Europe is under attack! France has experienced a tragedy. France was attacked in its lifestyle, its culture, its youth, its vision of coexistence, its democratic values, its human rights, its respect for cultural diversity. Sitting in a stadium to watch a football match with the family, having a drink on the terrace of a café, having lunch with friends in a restaurant, going to a concert of contemporary music in an ancient theatre are all acts of impiety for the totalitarian ideology of radical Islamism. Thus the terrorists attacked.

This means that not only France is under attack. The attack is on the very foundations of human civilization: the humanism born of the encounter between Judeo-Christianity and the Greek-Roman civilization that originated our continent.

After New York, Madrid, London, Tunis, Ankara, Beirut, the tragedy of Paris follows the wake of a long litany of horrors. Already past January the freedom of the press and the Jewish community had suffered a deadly blow.

Seventy years ago, the world had been freed from Nazism at the end of a vicious war. The world thus freed itself from barbarity; the Nazi barbarity that intended to create a world based on race and on the primacy of force. We are facing a new barbarity today.

In the face of Nazism, a great alliance was created against it, and throughout all of Europe the Resistance raised its head to say NO to Evil. Resistance united people from all walks of life, from all ethnic, political and religious backgrounds. This alliance must come together again; a new resistance must defend our fundamental values and defeat the barbarism of the new century. Europe must come to acknowledge that when Paris is attacked the whole of Europe is attacked, along with all men and women of good will. The French people were deeply touched by the numerous gestures of friendship and solidarity worldwide: great monuments lit up in the colours of the French flag, the national anthem resounding in stadiums, on the streets… The images from different parts of the world were truly moving. But at the same time,

France remains very much alone, almost isolated. Above all, there is no concrete support from European countries, not even from the European Union: protection of European borders is yet to be concretized, the Schengen agreement is not being respected by several European countries; exchange of information between security services is absent or insufficient, coupled by the refusal of military support abroad.

Yet, when France sends planes to Syria or Iraq, when France sends soldiers to Mali, it defends at the same time Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Greece, etc. It is committed to the defence of all, to the defence of European values, of the lifestyle of fellow European citizens. But French soldiers are left alone on more difficult and dangerous grounds.

Daesh totalitarian terrorism and all the other groups of the same kind must be defeated; they must be defeated by military force in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Nigeria. It must be defeated in our territories to strengthen internal security while respecting human rights and reaffirming the power of culture and education. It is clear that these commitments cannot result from the efforts of a single State, of one people only.

The whole of Europe needs to acknowledge what is at stake.  Europe must commit itself in the defence and promotion of the ideal of a different society, where coexistence is possible, in a world of peace, freedom and fraternity. Europe has managed to create an economic space, but it failed to create a political space. The current situation is rather dangerous to advance on that front. There is an emergency. There is no time to waste.