“Charlie Hebdo”: Chronicle of a provocation

There will have been a before and after January 7, 2015. It is the day of the massacre of the editorial staff of “Charlie Hebdo” by the Kouachi brothers, which will give rise to a gigantic solidarity gathering in Paris. Everyone stands by the hand, says “I am Charlie”. A form of consensus and fraternity, a wall that stood against fanaticism and intolerance. We thought it was going to last. What is left 10 years later?

Since then, “Charlie” has been subject to debates, controversy, people have claimed an inheritance without deserving it. What we forget in history are the roots of “Charlie”, born following the famous cover of “Hara Kiri” after the death of General de Gaulle: “Tragic ball in Colombey: a dead man”. Choron and Cavanna see their newspaper prohibited and therefore launch “Charlie Hebdo”, which will last from 1970 to 1982.

But under the insistence of Philippe Val, the weekly will be reborn in 1992. Dominique Ziegler, author and director, and the Geneva designer Alex Baladi, tell us the story of this doubtful recovery in the album “Chacal Hebdo”. All the names have been changed, but the protagonists are recognizable. And presented in an unmanual light.

“I wanted to make it a play first, but no one wanted to,” explains Dominique Ziegler. A friend suggested that I offer it to Baladi, who, like me, was a reader of the old Charlie. ”

“As for the change of names, he evokes the satirical method. It is a fiction telling real facts, drawn mainly from the book “Mohicans”, by Denis Robert, published in 2015. But I allow myself freedoms. Thus, when Philibert Vil character inspired by Philippe Val, Persuade Cabagna (Cavanna) to give him the right to take over the title of the newspaper, it is I who invent that in addition, it goes without paying the addition to the restaurant. “

Professor Choron sees himself scolding his rights on the title by Philippe Val, with whom he had already refused to work, having never appreciated him. Far from the joyful brothel of the old “Charlie Hebdo”, the new weekly is becoming more and more provocative, but, if we believe, this comic, on purpose. Val has been the subject of many criticisms of his management and his relations within the editorial staff, provoking departures or turning people like Siné. Whoever presented himself as a kind of rebellious, brandishing press freedom as a standard protecting him from everything, will leave the newspaper in 2009, named at the head of France Inter by … Nicolas Sarkozy. Which is not very anarchic.

Also relying on internal testimonies, Ziegler and Baladi tell us how, while sales are in free fall, Val has bet on the republication of the caricatures of Muhammad to rebooster the sales and touch a jackpot with Cabu. According to comics, the editor-in-chief will then press the mushroom of Islamophobia, perhaps more by mercantilism than conviction.

“Charlie Hebdo” since the Vals time is often accused of Islamophobia. In 2015, two sociologists then published a forum in “Le Monde”, refuting this after an analysis of the news of the newspaper. Out of 523 covers, only 7 were devoted to Islam in 10 years. “It’s always the same argument,” says Dominique Ziegler. But we only analyze one, when we forget the editorials of Philippe Val, the interior drawings, the articles of Caroline Fourest. It is also said that “Charlie” was similarly attacked Catholics. Yes, but in church, not to believers. While often it is Muslim citizens, especially women, who are criticized there. ”

The Islamophobic or not “Charlie” debate is not over. But it is sure that the dead killed by two fanatics in 2015 should never be forgotten. “I drew the whole checkered album, a black box, a white box,” says Baladi. Until the attack, which I illustrate only by an entirely black page. “Charlie” wanted to identify with freedom of expression, we could no longer criticize it after the attacks. But the Charlie I loved was that of Choron and Reiser. ”

“Charlie Hebdo”, a drift, a feint insolence, a Business of the provocative? Denis Robert, author of the book which is largely inspired “Chacal Hebdo”, delivered at the beginning of the year a new editorial on Blast, paying homage to Choron and Cavanna, but still criticizing those who have taken up “Charlie” and fed, according to him, neo-reactionary. On the same media, a journalist criticizes “Chacal Hebdo”, praising the attacks against Val, but castigating the authors to have also taken it to Cabu and Charb.

What is certain is that in 2025, especially in France, it seems impossible to get out of the extremes, between Islamophobia and anti -Semitism. Satire should be beneficial and not divisive. We are a thousand leagues from the “Charlie” spirit of his real founding fathers.