Arthur Dénouveaux: "There are just as many young people as there were ten years ago who want to be terrorists and are willing to act."

ParisArthur Dénouveaux was one of the spectators at the Eagles of Death Metal concert in the Bataclan concert hall in Paris when the attacks took place jihadists on November 13, 2015. He was not physically injured, but like most survivors, he suffered psychological consequences. Dénouveaux is president of the association of victims of the attacks. Life For Paris And this Thursday he will participate in the solemn ceremonies commemorating the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Ten years have passed since the worst terrorist attack France has ever experienced. You were in the Bataclan concert hall when the terrorists stormed in.

— Ten years have passed, but the memories of the attack are very vivid, very fresh. I relive it all, and I think it's the same for all the victims I've spoken to. On the other hand, we also know that we've done a lot. We've sought treatment, we've received compensation, we've gone to court. Now a memorial has been built, and this is the idea: we will always live with the memory of November 13th, but the date recedes further and further away. The great lesson of these ten years is that the memories of the attack remain, but we are capable of living with them.

The victims' association that you preside over, Life For ParisIt will disappear after the commemorations on November 13th. Is this a necessary gesture to move on?

— Yes, the association has already fulfilled its objectives and can be dissolved. I would even say it should be dissolved. When you are a victim, you try to stop being one and be able to say "I was a victim" and not "I am a victim." You can't do this if you maintain an active victims' association, because you can't say "I no longer want to be a victim" and at the same time have an association. We discussed this two years ago, and the dissolution will take effect on the night of November 13, after the inauguration of the memorial, which is the final step we needed.

What has been the most difficult thing about these 10 years?

— There are many difficult things. To begin with, recognizing that I was a victim was hard. I thought I was a witness until my brain reminded me that something was wrong. Then there have been some very strange things, like the fake victims. It's very hard to discover that there are fake victims, that there are people who, for money, are capable of pretending to be what you detest and are forced to be. And also, the suicides. Last year, one of the pillars of our association committed suicide [the cartoonist Fred Dewilde]. He seemed fine, he had written books... The constant presence of death is something we shouldn't get used to. And it's difficult.

How does one rebuild oneself after such a traumatic experience?

— I don't think there are any easy answers for rebuilding yourself. The journey is very individual. But there are some things that work: the first is to come together, because together we are stronger and clearer. Since no one really knows what to do with an experience like that, sharing it helps you move forward a little. The second is to rely on institutions—medical care, compensation funds, the justice system—which are meant to protect you, and which do so well. This also restores your faith in the state and society, because you think: "The state failed me that night, it couldn't protect me, but there are other institutions that have helped me heal." Then there's a part that depends solely on you: where you find your own strength to move forward.

He says the French state failed on November 13th. Has enough progress been made to stop jihadist terrorism?

— Even today, according to the state, there are just as many young people as before who want to be terrorists and are willing to act. We've been living in a kind of state of emergency for thirty years, with police patrolling everywhere, and the state hasn't resolved that. So, yes, the state has done things, but it struggles to respond to issues that require time, because the political personnel change every three, four, or five years. And it's difficult to address the problems of radicalization.

But there have been some advances in this area, such as better monitoring of imams and mosques to prevent radicalization.

— I think the state is doing what it knows how to do in terms of justice, policing, and intelligence services. This is already a lot. There are no longer major attacks; the police arrest the perpetrators before they can act. But they've only addressed the symptoms of the problem, not the disease itself. After the attacks, the then Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, uttered that terrible phrase that I think still pains us today: "To understand or to explain is to excuse." In other words, he was telling us that the enemy is "incomprehensible" and that we only need to prevent them from attacking again, but by saying this, he's trying to defuse the root causes of their violence, and this remains a major problem today. In France, we find it very difficult to talk about these issues, which also involve religion and secularism—a debate that is inherently volatile—so it's hard to make progress.

Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the November 13th bombing commando, has expressed his willingness to meet with victims. Could this help?

— I think it's essential to clearly define the reasons and purpose behind this, and to ensure that both sides have appropriate expectations. Because one of the things we saw in the trial is that these terrorists tend to speak in terms of ideology rather than about themselves. So, can restorative justice be applied to an ideology? To someone who believes they are right?

Would you like to speak with him face to face?

— Honestly, I have no problem sitting across from him. But if he were actually there, I don't know what I'd say. Obviously, I could tell him about my journey, my difficulties after the attack... but I don't expect anything from him. If I did, it would be, in a way, for his sake, not for mine.

Has he returned to the Bataclan concert hall after the attack?

— Yes, I went back in early 2016 to visit it. It took me a while to go back to a concert, but now I go fairly regularly. I go back without fear, but I've never returned to the exact spot where I was that night. It's always been a source of pride that the venue was able to resume its pre-attack life. It was important. For the victims, going back is a way of showing that we can move forward.