“Historic day” said Pierre Laurent, the president of the Party of the European Left (EL) to qualify yesterday's rallies. More than 3.5 million people participated the march across the country. They peacefully took the streets, united behind the slogan “I am policeman, Jew, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, French, word citizen, I am Charlie”

In Paris more than one million and a half citizens of all ages flooded the centre of the city to assert the values of the Republic. It was the response of the French people to the three days of attacks in Paris, starting from the massacre in the office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and continued with the murder of police officers and hostages in a Jewish supermarket. Total: 17 murdered people.

"We must say bravo to the French people for standing up to defend this way the democracy and the founding values of the French Republic: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" stated the President of the Party of the European left, Pierre Laurent. "The most important is the day after. We will work together to build a movement that translate these values into concrete ways to defend democracy".

Into the crowd, where each step was a challenge, through the streets of Paris, Pierre Laurent explained that there is a very potential situation of hope, "but also a danger represented by some forces that will continue trying to divide the French society to develop the hate. We will fight against that to reject all forms of hatred, all racism and discrimination”.

In solidarity, some leaders of EL member parties travelled to Paris to take part on this historic day: a delegation of Greek members of Syriza, with Manoli Glezos, Cayo Lara, coordinator of Izquierda Unida (Spain)who came expressly from Madrid, with to the responsible of economy and employment of the organisation, José Antonio García Rubio, friends of the Bloco de Esquerda (Portugal). All of them shared the Front de Gauche banner, headed by FG leaders, Pierre Laurent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, along with elected officials of the French communist party

"The left has always practiced the fraternity and now is time to strengthen our solidarity to face the fascist movements that grow by taking advantage of these situations," said Cayo Lara. He added: "All of us are here for the defence of freedom, the freedom of expression, equality and fraternity as well as secularism. And we will not allow that anyone, in the name of any kind of totalitarianism or fundamentalism, try to steal them. We have been doing it for decades and so we will continue."