Social networks fuel the terrorist threat in France, says the minister, 10 years after the Charlie Hebdo attack | France

The threat of a terrorist attack against France is fueled by social media and has never been greater, the country’s interior minister said, 10 years after gunmen killed 12 people in an attack on the newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Speaking on the anniversary of the massacre at the newspaper’s offices, Bruno Retailleau said French intelligence had foiled nine planned attacks last year – including three targeting the Olympics – and that the country ” could be affected tomorrow.”

Retailleau, appointed last September, said these were the highest number of foiled attacks since 2017. The threat, he said, came from young people radicalized by social media and increasingly collaborating with foreign groups .

“Fortunately, since 2015, France has rearmed itself against terrorism… but the battle against Islamic totalitarianism is far from won and it is clear that tomorrow France could be hit again,” he said .

He added: “Over the last year, the threat came from within (France). There may now be increasing cooperation between foreign groups and a domestic threat from young people radicalized by social media. We cannot exclude anything.

Retailleau made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Le Parisien to mark the 10th anniversary of the attack on Charlie Hebdo, which occurred on the first of three days of terrorist attacks in 2015 that left 17 people dead. The attack triggered a wave of international solidarity summed up by the slogan JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie).

A commemorative double issue of Charlie Hebdo was published Tuesday, a decade after Chérif and Saïd Kouachi stormed the newspaper’s offices and killed 10 staff members, including some of the country’s most recognized cartoonists, as well as the security officer of the editor-in-chief at the time, Franck Brinsolaro. A 12th victim, a police officer named Ahmed Merabet, was shot in cold blood as he lay injured on the sidewalk outside.

French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as several ministers, celebrities and relatives of the victims were expected in Paris for a series of ceremonies in memory of the victims. Among those killed was Clarissa Jean-Philippe, 26, a police trainee shot dead by a third terrorist, Amédy Coulibaly, on January 8.

On January 9, Coulibaly took the kosher supermarket Hyper Cacher hostage and killed four Jews, Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham and François-Michel Saada.

The three gunmen were killed in separate shootouts with police on January 9.

“Paris remembers,” was the message published Tuesday on the Paris City Hall website. He indicated that the commemorations would take place with “discreet solemnity, as desired by the families of the victims”.

After a ceremony in front of the former Charlie Hebdo offices in the 11th arrondissement and the laying of wreaths at the spot where Merabet was killed, mourners led by Macron and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, were to gather in front of the Hyper Cacher in the 20th arrondissement. A separate ceremony was to take place for Jean-Philippe.

Tuesday evening, the French television channel France 2 was to offer an “exceptional” program around the theme: “Are we all still Charlie?”

Macron announced he is relaunching plans to build a multimillion-euro memorial museum dedicated to victims of terrorism at Mont Valérien, an existing memorial site honoring soldiers and resistance fighters who died during World War II.

The project was reportedly abandoned before Christmas, but the president said it would continue, with a planned opening in 2027.