Date: 2022
Type: Contribution to book
At the upper echelons of the state : symbols to build national unity
Florence FAUCHER and Gérôme TRUC (eds), Facing terrorism in France : lessons from the 2015 Paris attacks, Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, French politics, society and culture, pp. 81-91
BOUSSAGUET, Laurie, FAUCHER, Florence, At the upper echelons of the state : symbols to build national unity, in Florence FAUCHER and Gérôme TRUC (eds), Facing terrorism in France : lessons from the 2015 Paris attacks, Cham : Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, French politics, society and culture, pp. 81-91
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77782
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
The French executive reacted within minutes of the attack on Charlie Hebdo, visiting the affected sites and making comments in the media. In the following hours and days, they articulated a frame for the interpretation of the collective trauma and offered a narrative of resilience. This chapter shows that the French executive worked consciously after the attacks to build and preserve a national unity that it feared would break up. The authors argue that the phenomenon of a ‘rally around the flag’ (the executive enjoyed renewed support, evident in public opinion and in the attitudes of political actors) was not a ‘patriotic reflex’ but was politically and socially constructed by President Hollande, Prime Minister Valls, Interior Minister Cazeneuve and their teams. Based on interviews with the actors involved, they demonstrate that symbolic public action was prepared carefully and consciously and intended to prevent potential outbursts of violence.
Additional information:
Published online: 12 April 2022
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77782
Full-text via DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-94163-5_8
ISBN: 9783030941628; 9783030941635
ISSN: 2946-3750; 2946-3769
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
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