(Editorial) “The urgency of dialogue”, by Valérie Lion

A standing Pope, a Marianne on the ground: two images of the same world which oscillates between hope and despair. One appeared furtively on our screens, the other played in a loop. Saturday October 17 was a dark day in France: peaceful demonstrators sometimes prevented from marching to defend their demands, “black blocs” attacking symbols of the Republic and thugs ransacking businesses with the sole objective of destroying and looting. Faced with these disparate crowds, police officers are on edge, overwhelmed.

How far away seems the time when these same police forces were applauded and thanked by demonstrators: it was January 11, 2015, after the attack against Charlie Hebdo. We saw “Thank you police” signs popping up. October 17, 2026 is another date that some participants in the Parisian parades remembered: that of October 17, 1961 and the murderous repression of a peaceful demonstration of pro-FLN Algerians. How did we arrive at such distrust?

Last Saturday, a bust of Marianne was thrown to the ground in the town hall of Marseille, the town hall of Limoges was ravaged by flames, as were newspaper kiosks. The Republic, the press, symbols of our democracy were violently attacked. Sunday morning, in shock like many of us, I rushed to my newsagent’s, Place de la Bastille, in Paris. His kiosk is open. Barely tagged. He tells me he was there the day before until 9 p.m. He saw high school students return from the demonstration, he also saw young people tempted to fight it out. He stayed there. “Always be in dialogue,” this professional who has seen others repeats to me (he is valiantly approaching 70). “I even played ball with them!” And they helped me move the barrier that protected the entrance to the kiosk. » He smiles, placid: “You must never cut the link. »

This message is also that of Leo XIV, who had surgery last week for a lung tumor. On October 16, from his convalescent room, he called Vladimir Putin and demanded a truce to allow the besieged residents of the Ukrainian town of Olechky to receive humanitarian aid. On October 17, while leaving the hospital, he stopped to greet a young Ukrainian refugee. A strong sign, after his appeal to the Russian president. Never give up on dialogue: it’s not spectacular, it’s just necessary. And urgent.