A “very sober” ceremony on Sunday in Arras, to pay tribute to Dominique Bernard, this professor who was the victim of a terrorist attack in 2023

It will be held at Heroes’ Square and will rely on culture and education, specifies the mayor of Arras, “one of the driving forces of Dominique Bernard” and “ultimately the strongest weapon to try to face this type of aggression.

The ceremony in tribute to Dominique Bernard on Sunday October 13 in Arras will be “very sober”, to show that “the Republic is stronger, the French community is stronger”underlines Friday October 11 on France Bleu Nord the mayor of the city, Frédéric Leturque. Sunday will be the anniversary of the terrorist attack of which Dominique Bernard was the victim, a year ago, in front of the Gambetta-Carnot school complex in Arras (Pas-de-Calais).

Four ministers have been announced to pay tribute to the French teacher killed by a radicalized former student: Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, and Anne Genetet Minister of Education. According to the Arras town hall, the Keeper of the Seals Didier Migaud and the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher will also be present. A large ceremony is planned on Heroes’ Square from 11 a.m. It’s a time that“we built it with his wife, with his family, with his loved ones above all, with the educational community, specifies Frédéric Leturque. We wanted this time to be on Hero’s Square, the place where we gathered a year ago, after his assassination.”

The ceremony will be “tour on culture, which was ultimately one of Dominique Bernard’s driving forces along with education, it is a ceremony which will call on music, songs, readings of texts, dance” continues the councilor. It will aim to “share who Dominique Bernard was, what his struggles were and how his commitments will continue to be carried out”. Above all, “what we share with Isabelle Bernard”the wife of Dominique Bernard, “it is this desire to always and again work on living together, on dialogue, which in our society is an essential backbone for creating community”he continues.

This October 13, 2023 will remain for Arras “a shock, an injury, a big questioning, a big voidconfides the chosen one. We have all been marked by this violence. A violence that we necessarily always imagine elsewhere and not necessarily at home.” With this ceremony, he wants again, like a year ago, to send “a strong message” : “We are standing, we are here, we will not back down. The Republic is stronger, the French community is stronger, assures the mayor. We resist and we mark the power that culture represents, education as ultimately being the strongest weapon to try to face this type of aggression which, for us, has no right of citizenship, nor in Arras or elsewhere.”

Frédéric Leturque then plans to transform the entrance to the high school to make it “more than a place that would bear his name”a symbolic place. “I asked that we rework the complete layout of what we call Square Frachon, which is this square which is located in front of the Gambetta-Carnot high school. More than a place, it is to make that this redevelopment in some way translates the way in which Dominique Bernard conceived of culture, literature and that the urban furniture and developments are inspired by the power of these words and these reflections.”