It was only ten ago. Nothing on the scale of history. And yet 80 % of French people consider it important to commemorate Paris attacks of November 13, 2015Who left 130 dead and hundreds of injured in the Stade de France, on the Parisian terraces and the Bataclanaccording to a study on the gaze of the French on the commemorations carried out as the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War approached that the Parisian unveiled exclusively this Tuesday.
It is more than for the Holocaust (75 %) or the French Revolution (73 %). According to this study carried out by IFOP for the Observatory History and Public Life, only commemorations of the end of the two world wars (86 % for the second, 83 % for the first) are deemed larger by the panel of 1000 people aged 18 and over, representative of the French population. “This illustrates the weight of the moment and the news compared to history. We are in a more instantaneous period with less perspective, ”deciphers Pierre Branda, historian and director of the History and Public Life Observatory.
THE Images of the tragic evening of November 13 have been around newspapers and social networks: they are anchored in the collective spirit. “This evening has remained more in the memories than older events such as the French Revolution,” continues Pierre Branda. Especially since, according to this study, 91 % of French people consider that commemorations are above all “a means of honoring the victims and the heroes of the past”. “For the First World War, there has been a question of commemorating the dead more than the armistice,” he said in parallel.
81 % of French people judge the commemorations important
In a more global way, 81 % of French people believe that commemorations are significant, including 33 % very important. In detail, 89 % of the intermediate professions consider these commemorations important. It is 88 % for employees, 80 % for executives and intellectual professions and 77 % for workers. “On the other hand, there is only little difference between the generations,” says Pierre Branda.
Variations are also observed according to the political edge (77 % of LFI sympathizers consider this important, 94 % in them of LR or Renaissance). “We thought that society was less in the past, but it’s a false impression,” says Pierre Branda. There is this desire for the French to understand history. »»
For 84 % of those questioned, commemorations are a “pedagogy tool for future generations”. “Not only can commemorations prompt to learn about an event, but it is also a transmission tool,” points Pierre Branda. These are also, for 78 % of them, a “means of strengthening the civic spirit and citizen conscience” and, for 76 % of respondents, something essential “to maintain national unity”.
Conversely, the French reject any political aspect. Only 51 % of respondents say they have confidence in the figure of the President of the Republic to “organize, perpetuate and embody major commemorations”. It is 46 % for the government, 39 % for “political staff in general” and 38 % for deputies. “The public service prevents a decorrelation of commemoration itself, analyzes Pierre Branda. We suffer from the Fifth Republic in which the Head of State is also the one who directs. »»
