Used book – Nous sommes la France, Natacha Polony

After the January 2015 attacks, 4 million French people marched under the slogan "We are France". But who are this "we" and this "France"? It is essential to affirm what unites us, beyond our diversities, across France and the Republic, to prevent fractures from deepening and wounds from festering.

"Nothing will ever be the same again." This is what politicians, journalists... proclaimed. And then, some set about reinterpreting events by identifying the culprits and accomplices, controlling the words that should be spoken and those that should be banned. Why such a powerful denial? Because it was about avoiding at all costs asking the crucial question: if 4 million French people could take to the streets, proclaiming behind the slogan "I am Charlie" (later reduced to the absurd simple expression of an injunction to emotion) a huge "we are France", we still need to ask who this "we" is and what France is. By not asking this question, we will condemn ourselves to seeing fractures deepen and wounds fester. By not offering all young French people, wherever they come from, adherence to a national identity that tells them something other than a vague catechism mixed with sustainable development and human rights to dress consumerism and spectacle with idealism, we are preparing for the worst nightmare: a fragmented country, ravaged by hatred and secession.

So, let's seize this opportunity offered by the tragedy and affirm what unites us, beyond our diversities, across France and the Republic." Natacha Polony

"The Polony phenomenon" - Figaro Magazine "We are France, her message of hope to a fractured country" - Figaro Magazine "A lucid assessment, without being despairing, of the state of France" - Pierre de Boishue Le Figaro Magazine 9782259230407