As the political indecency—particularly in Nice—continues to invade the public space, we preferred to respect the national mourning by walking like many people from Nice along the Promenade des Anglais.
In front of the flowers, messages, and candles, I felt the same unspeakable sadness for the victims and the same cold rage against Islamist extremism as I did in New York in November 2001 in front of the ruins of the World Trade Center or in front of the Bataclan at the end of last year.
But we are in Nice, and since that fateful evening, there’s not been a meeting or phone call that doesn’t bring news of a tragedy affecting a family from our city. Even though we (especially) must not forget the affected visitors, the reality is distressing: the consequences of the attack have indeed spread throughout the city.
Walking among the hearts drawn where lifeless bodies once lay, you inevitably imagine familiar faces that force you to step out of an otherwise somewhat abstract sense of despair.
For my part, I thought first of Gaston: an adorable little boy full of joy, dreams, and questions with his funny-man hat. He still fights unconscious in his bed at the Lenval Hospital. We also think of Francisca, his mother, our student, striving on her bed of suffering at the Marseille University Hospital to overcome many injuries exacerbated by fragile health.
Wandering along the Promenade gave me the paradoxical feeling of being with them, by their side.
Here there’s no need to say “I am Nice” because we are Nice for better or worse. In every way.
Tomorrow, Monday (note: today) at noon, we will return to the Promenade to participate in the national minute of silence. We will not go to the event proposed by the municipality. If the invitation had truly been from the new mayor, Mr. Pradal, who this morning wrote a strong yet dignified and responsible editorial on the events in Nice-Matin, we would, of course, have participated in this republican gathering. But, under the probable authority of the First Deputy, it is not possible. It is no longer possible.
Patrick Mottard
