On the eve of the first anniversary of the attack that decimated the drafting of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly published a special issue on Wednesday, whose cover shows a picture of a god with an assault rifle over his shoulder and the words "the murderer still at large ".
And it is that Charlie Hebdo, "newspaper fun fight," should be "where others dare not go," said the cartoonist Riss, one of the staff writers who survived the attack a year ago and now his manager.
Protected by five bodyguards, Riss has pride how the survivors managed to revive the weekly, the jihadists believed dead. "A newspaper in combat, but, fighting crazy fun", especially in favor of secularism.
The proof is the appearance of a Wednesday anniversary, more atheist and satirical than ever, and with a circulation of one million copies. On its cover, a murderer god, running with an assault rifle on his shoulder and an editorial defense of secularism.
"Charlie Hebdo gives up nothing", notes the daily Le Parisien.
"Definitely, like it or not, they are Charlie". "One year after the crime, we can be sure about: against the devotees, fans, the kneeling, conformist and dogmatic, Charlie live", says the director of the newspaper Libération, Laurent Joffrin, which housed in its drafting team weekly after the attack.
The appearance of this special issue did not cause the avalanche of public kiosks to registered upon leaving the "number of survivors" after the attack, which took a historical spread of seven million and a half copies.
At the time, the slogan "I'm Charlie" is hoisted in the world to condemn the attack and defend freedom of expression.
"You have to nudge people" -... "For this cover, I wanted to overcome this or that religion and touch most fundamental things is the very idea of God to us, Charlie, answer affirm things clearly thought-provoking must shake some people, otherwise stay in their lanes, "said Riss.
Since the attack on 7 January, the newspaper has lived "a year of weekly fights. Fighting for our ideas, but also to prove that we were still able to do is the last test, in which we see if we live or die, if we believe in our ideas so much over this year and come out on top. If the newspaper had disappeared, our ideas have disappeared a bit, "says the artist.
Despite the arrival of ten new partners, the void left by the dead, including the famous cartoonists Cabu, Wolinski, tignous, Honoré and Charb, it remains large. "We think of them without ceasing." "For me, they are not here, but have not disappeared," said Riss.
Riss, who was seriously wounded in the attack, you want your newspaper continue to defend secularism in France and abroad.
Currently, about 100,000 copies sold weekly at newsstands, to which must be added 183,000 subscriptions. Before the attack, its circulation was 30,000 copies and the newspaper had serious financial difficulties.
The support received by the weekly continues to move Riss, but with these new backups "there are misunderstandings," he smiles.
That a priest wrote: "I parade you on January 11 (in the largest demonstration ever held in France) and consider his scandalous cover."
"As if on January 11 was a contract: I expressed for you and now calm," said Riss.