French President defends 'right to laugh' as Charlie Hebdo trial is underway

Just days after the trial of 14 Islamist gunmen accused of helping the attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish store in 2015 began on September 2, French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly noted that “to be French” is to “defend the right to laugh”. In the Paris Pantheon which is a mausoleum to French heroes, Macron gave five new residents their French papers in the ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the Third Republic. 

Macron stated that at the start of the trial of the attacks of January 2015 that sent shock waves across France, to be French is to ‘defend the right to laugh, jest, mock and caricature’ of which Voltaire maintained that it is the source of all other rights. This came after more than a dozen defendants went on trial this week for their participating in the killing spree in Paris officers of Charlie Hebdo magazine that caused the death of 12 people. 

Just this week, the magazine even republished the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that reportedly made Islam extremists furious. One of the cartoons appeared to show Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban and the decision to reprint these graphics was denounced by Iran. 

Read - Iran Denounces Charlie Hebdo's Republication Of Prophet Cartoon As Act Of 'provocation'

Read - Charlie Hebdo Republishes Old Cartoons On Eve Of 2015 Terrorist Massacre Trial In Paris

Macron talked about immigrants shaping France’s future

Meanwhile, on welcoming the five new citizens from the UK, Algeria, Cameroun, Peru, Lebanon, the French President said that the foreign nationals have been the driving force for the good in the nation. Macron even noted that the Third Republic was proclaimed from Paris city hall by the son of an Italian immigrant, Leon Gambetta on September 4, 1870. He addressed the five immigrants saying Gambetta “was like you, a son of immigrants”. 

Apart from Gambetta, Macron also noted several other immigrants who have contributed to shaping the history of France such as Polish scientists Marie Curie, American singer Josephine Baker, Tunisia’s feminist Gisele Alimi and the first French Black colonial governor and first Black man to have his ashed placed in the Pantheon,  Felix Eboue. Macron then added that it is now the turn of the five new immigrants to write their ‘chapter in the book of the republic’. 

Read - Charlie Hebdo Attack Accomplices Face Trial; Macron Says 'won't Condemn Muhammad Cartoon'

Read - Macron Refuses To Condemn Charlie Hebdo Cartoons