Whatever happened to ‘Je Suis Charlie’?

Five years on from the horrific Charlie Hebdo massacre in which a dozen people lost their lives, politicians have been busy showcasing their sanctimony. Socialist mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo urged people ‘never to forget’ the price the cartoonists paid for the courage. Yet only last week, Hidalgo used Twitter to express her ‘profound shock’ at a small publicity campaign on the Paris transport network opposing assisted medical procreation for lesbian couples and single women, an issue currently under discussion in the Senate. Once she had recovered her equanimity, Hidalgo ordered ‘that the posters be withdrawn immediately’. But what did Charlie Hebdo stand for if not the freedom to publish things others might vehemently disagree with?

I was one of a million people who assembled for a solidarity march through the streets of Paris in January 2015, just days after Islamists punished Charlie Hebdo for publishing cartoons of the Prophet. The procession was headed by a succession of world leaders, among them Angela Merkel.