François Hollande will pay homage on Saturday to the victims of Nice, three months after the attack on the 14th July and the violent polemics on security vulnerabilities and ways of combating terrorism, issues at the heart of the presidential campaign.
This is the castle hill, which was chosen to host the tribute to the victims of the Nice attack on Saturday at 11am. A dear place in the heart of Nice overlooking the sea and the Promenade des Anglais where 86 people have died in the evening of 14 July .
“Today the whole world, France is Nice. #ILoveNice ” Tweeted LR President of the PACA region and first deputy of Nice Christian Estrosi, before the start of the ceremony.
Aujourd’hui, le monde entier, la France, est Nice. #ILoveNice pic.twitter.com/wRxQHFhbQ4
— Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) 15 October 2016
Requested by the Nice and victims associations who helped organize the ceremony, due to start at 1100, should have taken symbolically Friday three months to the day after the attack the truck ram on the Promenade des Anglais the evening of fireworks, but it was postponed 24 hours due to atrocious weather.
Meditation and national unity
In a climate weighed down by his unpopularity and the announcement repeated the French that the attack would not be the last, Mr Hollande will have the difficult task of offering to the bereaved and injured many a moment of meditation and national unity in a city that is also a stronghold Sarkozy.
Four days after the tragedy, Prime Minister Manuel Valls had been copiously booed at a rally for a minute of silence.
The hypercommunicant Christian Estrosi, Deputy Prime LR for mayor of Nice and President of the Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur promised absolute dignity – “either for the victims or for Nice for France” , has -t he said Monday.
During the summer, the right accused the government of laxity in the fight against terrorism and the extreme right, very rooted in Nice and its region, called for the resignation of Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
15 injured still hospitalized
The government is however not the only one in question: the Nice parquet receives a dozen complaints of deliberately endangering the lives of others for the state but also the town hall, accused of evil protected the site or undervalued danger, after the safe faultless of the Euro 2016 football .
The boos and anger that had targeted Manuel Valls and all the motorcade during the minute of silence had been seen as a sign of growing tensions in French society, already traumatized by the attacks in January (17 dead) and November 2015 ( 130 dead) in Paris and Saint-Denis.
The attacks have also widened the gap with the Muslim community, which already was struggling to escape the discrimination and the feeling of rejection.
More than just a ceremony, this tribute is equivalent to that which can be made at the Invalides military. It will be strictly closed to the public and broadcast live on television, without giant screen in Nice.
Foreign delegation
Around Francois Hollande, only members of the government, elected officials, foreign delegations, 200 bereaved families, over 1000 victims and shocked people were invited on the Castle Hill, which rises on the seafront near the Old Nice.
The names of the 86 victims who died, nearly a third of Muslim people, will be read, and a white rose will be made to each of them by students. Fifteen children or teenagers died on July 14 and 98 were injured.
Besides the French, 19 nationalities were hit. The French Riviera receives 11 million tourists each year, half from abroad. economically penalized by the attack, Nice hoteliers and taxis offered free victim came to the tribute.
After the reading of a text by a member of a family of victims, the singer Julien Clerc lend his voice to the departed as the choir of children of the Nice Opera.
Fifteen injured are still hospitalized in France and abroad.
The evening of July 14, about 30,000 people attended the Prom’Party. The bomber, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian based in Nice for over ten years, had hired a heavy truck and spotted the previous day areas. At this point, investigators have not established a direct link with the Islamic State group claimed the attack .
