Andrea Riccardi with the French prime minister
Manuel Valls in the Marche Républicaine

At the start of the Marche Républicaine, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio Andrea Riccardi emphasised with these words the importance of  the joint demonstration around France, hit by the serious terrorist attacks of recent days: "Paris is a great city that has managed to react in an exceptional way. Being among this crowd, composed of representatives of the institutions and religious authorities along with thousands of ordinary citizens, one feels the expression of a popular humanism that is at the roots of Europe and that commits us to work for unity and integration. Today, here, our continent communicates its truest and most profound soul to all: the consciousness that it is possible to live a great unity with the participation and contribution of all the diversities that are part of it".