Riss: "Charlie Hebdo must survive Daesh"

The last front page of the satirical weekly, which presents a Tariq Ramadan with an enlarged penis, proclaiming "I am the 6th pillar of Islam!", once again places the newspaper at the heart of a controversy. After death threats broadcast on social networks, the satirical weekly announced on Monday a complaint. Riss, its director, wants to stand up against all odds. “Since January 2015, we have an obligation to last,” he believes.

The cartoonist has just published, with Éditions Les Échappés, a large format on Charlie Hebdo, 1992-2017 and is about to release, Thursday, November 9, a 48-page special on the Merah trial, which he followed from start to finish.

LE FIGARO. – Charlie Hebdo is the subject of death threats, following the front page on Tariq Ramadan, the Muslim preacher. Is this now the price to pay for your freedom of expression?

RISS. – This is not the first time since January 2015 that we have received numerous death threats. But it seems that for this cover, their number is higher than usual. Since January 2015, speech has been released and the call for murder has become commonplace, especially on social networks. Today, terrorist violence can strike anyone, not just Charlie Hebdo. The "price to pay", if there must be one, is now for everyone.

You spent five weeks at the Paris courthouse sketching the trial of Abdelkader Merah. Why did you put yourself at the heart of such an event?

I am a journalist above all, and I attended as a designer. This trial, even though he talked a lot about the one who wasn't there, Mohammed Merah, had a palpable intensity. It has made it possible to understand the mechanisms of the construction of religious extremism. The Merah affair is the beginning of something, the explanation of a type of attack unprecedented in France.

I spent weeks listening to this family explain that America and Israel were killing their Arab brothers, and that they had to be avenged. Or that one became an elect of God if one went through the prison box. Sitting upstairs, opposite the courtroom, I drew, filled in the large pages, which will form a special edition of commented boards.

This trial was a form of mise en abyme for you...

Somehow. If there is a trial in 2018 involving the network behind the January 2015 attacks, I will necessarily be called as a witness. The Merah trial will have prepared me for this confrontation which, I know in advance, will be very difficult.

“On January 7, I was in the newsroom, and what I experienced – down to the noise, the feeling or the smells – cannot be told in detail, except to two or three people”

Since 2015, you have been surrounded by bodyguards. How do we live like this?

We deal with it. None of us in the team will ever be able to move on without having this day in mind. It hovers above our heads, everyone thinks about it, without ever talking about it.

Seen from the outside, January 7 has a unity of place and time. But for those inside the Charlie Hebdo premises, the weather and the experience were not the same. Each of us has experienced something different, depending on where we were. However, everyone saw themselves at the center of the drama. I was in the newsroom, and what I experienced – down to the noise, the feeling or the smells – cannot be told in detail, except to two or three people. Luz wrote a book about his experience. I don't have the words for it, and anyway, I don't know if my story would be understood by others.

“Fifteen years after the first issue of Charlie, we are faced with the obligation to last. We have a duty to continue, while having the same concerns as all the other paper newspapers” Riss

You use the same words as Holocaust survivors after the war.

It's of the same order. Some things come from a language unknown to ordinary mortals. Why speak, in the end? I wonder myself. All I know is that I don't want to be locked into a victim status, especially since everyone sees themselves as such. the lawyer Dupond Moretti even went so far as to say that Mohamed Merah's mother "was also the mother of a dead man"...

What is the future of Charlie Hebdo?

In January 2015, people understood that we could disappear. What they don't know is that this is still the case. After the tragedy, we found ourselves invested with a mission, against our will. We try to answer it by focusing on what we like to do, humorous drawing. We have always been pessimistic, anyway!

But fifteen years after the first issue of Charlie, we are faced with the obligation to last. We have a duty to continue, while having the same concerns as all the other paper newspapers. In 1992, there were 36.000 outlets for the press, there are only 20.000 left. For us, being free on the Internet goes without saying: we can't just be mercantile, and the second generation of readers reads widely on the Web. However, it will be necessary to find the right balance between the paid and the free.

"The 'Islamo-leftists' no longer surprise us, and respond to such demagogic ideological schemes that they lose all credibility" Riss

We had seen 4 million French people in the street in January 2015, claiming that they were Charlie. Today, who are your supporters?

The very existence of the newspaper strengthens those who had supported us and strengthens us in our determination to continue to do so. There is a mutual interest, between readers, citizens and members of the newspaper, to see Charlie Hebdo exist, almost three years after the attack. We must hold on: Charlie Hebdo must survive Daesh.

Do the recent demonstrations by “Islamo-leftists” worry you?

The “Islamo-leftists” have been part of the political landscape for a long time. They no longer surprise us, and respond to such demagogic ideological patterns that they lose all credibility. Like the conventional left embodied by the PS, the "Islamo-leftists" are also in the throes of decay. The crisis that the French left is going through also hits this part of the left. The so-called “radical” or “alternative” lefts are also hitting rock bottom. The renewal of the French left, if there is ever a renewal, will have to concern all the families of the left, including the most radical.

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