A few hours after the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks. Address to the delegates of the European Green Party’s 23^rd Council gathered in Lyon. By Christian Kmiotek, co-president of the Luxembourgish Greens “déi gréng”, on behalf of the Luxembourgish delegation.

Chers amis, Dear friends,

I come before you to share two things, an emotion and a political thought.

In this sad, very sad moment, my emotion goes as follows:

We European Greens were about to widely use for the upcoming Paris Climate Conference the slogan ¨My Paris Moment¨. This was intended as a message of hope and stand for the beginning of a new era.

BUT… now and forever ¨Our Paris Moment¨ will be in our hearts and in our minds linked to the terrible Paris terrorist attacks.

Nevertheless, after the current state of shock and disbelief, after the phase of anger, will come a period of political analysis. I am confident that our Green analysis of the events and its shockwave will be based on a wide and systemic weighing of all factors.

This brings me to the political thought I would like to share.

I can fully understand that in a moment of shock and as a first, emotional reaction, the French nation feels like under a war attack. Politically however, I personally think that giving credit to the “Islamic State” to have successfully performed a war attack on a nuclear superpower gives too much weight to a bunch of terrorists.

Democrats have now to stand united. All democratic parties need to unite against those who will now put forward simplistic and populist so-called ¨solutions¨. We will need to take seriously the concerns and the fears of all the people, but we must stand firm in the defence of our values and of our democracy.

#NousSommesUnis