One Year Later: Has France Moved On?

“If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one … tomorrow’s rain will wash the stains away, but something will always stay.”

The lyrics of Sting’s “Fragile” resonated in the minds and ears of the lucky few who attended the Bataclan’s reopening, exactly one year after ISIS coordinated shootings and suicide bombings in Paris. The British singer’s performance was only a detail in the larger symbolism of the night. For the past year, the Bataclan has been under construction, and was rebuilt to mirror its appearance on November 13, 2015. To many, it represents a sign of continuity in a country facing a deep identity crisis.

The Charlie Hebdo attack a year earlier was an attack on a symbol: France’s traditional freedom of press combined with vitriolic cartoons on French politics, culture, and religion. While symbolically violent, the Charlie Hebdo attacks did not have the same ripple effect as the November attacks. Those targeted France as a whole: the nation was no longer targeted for what it wrote, but for its very essence.

Due to the profound shock the country mourned for days before life seemingly started to continue as it was before. However, the memory of those lost and the fear of another attack remain present. The lives lost cannot be forgotten, and the French live in the fear of the next attack.

Since last November, France’s security has stepped up and the government has assured its citizens that many attacks have been thwarted. The roadblocks in front of the Bataclan serve as a reminder of the prolonged state of emergency, which has continued since last November, and now appear as part of the background, along with the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

Those who live and work near the Bataclan are still trying to move on. Pierre, a bartender in a restaurant close by, reluctantly answered our questions, sometimes answering curtly. “We don’t like talking about it,” he remarked. Jean, a coworker, did admit that seeing the Bataclan reopen was a relief, adding, “We don’t want to live in fear.” When asked if his political views changed in response to the attack, Jean hesitated. “The first week perhaps, I don’t know. Now not so much, but we don’t like talking about politics, or religion.”

Despite the dramatic events, the political situation seems rather stable. The far-right National Front still exceeds in first round elections, but has failed to do so in second rounds. President Francois Hollande’s approval rating has increased slightly, from five percent to 15 percent, according to the most recent monthly poll conducted by Le Journal du Dimanche. Most polls still predict that the winner of the center-right primary will win the 2017 presidential election.

However, behind this feeling of fragile stability, France’s political discourse has changed radically. Many issues and propositions once limited to the far right have come up across the political spectrum. Candidates seem required to adopt a tough stance on immigration, Islamism, national identity, and security to have a chance at victory. Even the leftist Socialist Party has adopted propositions it once fought. Changes in public opinion have brought about this evolution. Thwarting terrorism, once a more distant concern, has become a national priority.

This trend does not limit itself to France. Populist parties have found increasing support across Europe and around the world. Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Donald Trump in the United States, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and Nigel Farage in Britain exemplify populism’s growth across diverse cultures and populations. That is because populism is not bounded to economic welfare, geopolitics or ethnicity; it is about individuals’ idea of what they want their country to be.

Each country’s populism has its nuances, but France’s rests on the feeling that the country has been going in the wrong direction for years. Relegated by Germany economically, criticized for its colonial past, challenged by the disruption of globalization, France already has an identity crisis, now reinforced by the last year’s attacks. The past few days have been an occasion for the French to come together and celebrate resilience, but the identity crisis will remain.