It was him, him and others, but him singularly, simply and above all, chance of an anonymous mobile phone filming the scene, him visibly. This morning of June 8, in the Parc du Pâquier, bordering Lake Annecy, the murderous race of Abdalmasih H., a Syrian who was granted asylum in Sweden in 2013, was filmed by a passerby. Knife in hand, shouting in English, he tries to plant his weapon; behind him, coming out of the playground, where four children were stabbed, jumping over the low gate, Henri d’Anselme. On his back, a bag, 20 kilos, he does not put it on the ground. On his belly, a derisory shield, another bag, smaller, which he detaches from his shoulder, holds at arm’s length, twirls around. The student catches up with the criminal. Body-to-body, a few centimeters, within knife reach. A hero, bare hands, simple soul. Henri throws the small bag towards the attacker, calls, reinforcements, help. Calm voice. The attacker resumes his race, Henri at his heels. Another young man appears in the image. He too runs towards the man with the knife. A woman throws herself on her pram, her body blocking the pram. The video stops. Two municipal agents start running in their turn; later, a passer-by, in his seventies, was injured in the arm while trying to intervene. Henri d’Anselme is not alone, he is the first. The first standing. The only one filmed.
The Men in Black Club
The sabbatical year student should be awarded, on the occasion of the civil promotion of July 14 rewarding each year some 300 people, the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor, the highest French distinction, rewarding for two centuries the “most deserving citizens”. The decision, still confidential, has just been taken at the Elysée. “On the occasion of July 14, the Elysée plans to distinguish all those who tried to prevent the assailant from harming, in particular Henri d’Anselme, we confide today in the entourage of the president. , and all those who did like him but who were not filmed, so there is an investigation to be carried out. Concern for equanimity or embarrassment in the face of the profile of Henri, the aristocrat of Yvelines, former scout of Europe, conservative Catholic, having chaired the small association Missio, a group claiming to be John-Paul II and sending “young people to evangelize des jeunes”, work-study student who worked for the editorial staff of The New Man, “bimonthly magazine to transmit and rebuild Christian civilization”, and his YouTube channel, The Club of Men in Black, which broadcasts sermons defending traditional Catholic rites? We don’t choose our heroes, we respect them, we thank them. And that one of them has always rubbed shoulders with the very traditional cathos, that he is at home in this conservative, reactionary, backward-looking current, that’s the way it is; France is plural, its heroes resemble it. The one who believed in heaven, and the others who perhaps don’t believe in it, or believe in it otherwise, or believe in another heaven. So what ?
Medical examinations
Since June 8, the student has remained in Annecy, where he arrived on June 6. It wasn’t planned that he would go on like this, he wanted to reach the Abbey of Hautecombe as quickly as possible, walk towards the motorway to hitchhike, then the Jura, Burgundy, Alsace. Only since this chase, he no longer sleeps, he no longer eats, exhausted. Adrenaline, he believes. He lends himself to a few exams, “a little medical and psychological follow-up”, he explains to his subscribers on social networks; 130,000 new people in a few hours, and famous ones – publishers, editorialists, journalists, TV and cinema stars – what a story indeed. The day after the tragedy, Henri d’Anselme was at the Haute-Savoie prefecture, where the Macron couple thanked these courageous people and the emergency services. Henri d’Anselme is a pilgrim, so he wears a T-shirt, not a ceremonial shirt. On this one, left sleeve, a French flag, embroidery signed by the airbrush Fockeur, expert in drawing on firearms, popular with the police. At his side, the other nameless hero, the septuagenarian, arm bandaged. And then police officers, nurses, the two municipal agents, first aiders, an assembly, anonymous, valiant, mixed with chance and courage, fear and greatness, all heroes of a moment, far from the small camera of the telephone anonymous laptop, having chosen to risk their lives to save others. What’s bigger?
A few minutes before the carnage, sitting on a bench facing the lake, Henri d’Anselme took advantage of the morning freshness to answer his messages on his phone, a few dozen friends, who follow, amused, tender, his pilgrimage a little perched. The day before, he visited the cathedral, prayed to Saint Francis de Sales, expelled from Geneva by the Protestants, the founder of the monastery of the Visitation, and the patron saint of… journalists.
On social networks, we are now examining the images posted by Henri since the spring. Still hairless when last March, leaving the Benedictine abbey of Barroux, he began his walk. The lock is long, the edges of the skull cut close, Ray-Ban sunglasses, he smiles, a few spelling mistakes in his photo captions. A sabbatical year, the tour of the cathedrals of France, on foot, until next Christmas and Notre-Dame de Paris. Why end there? asks a comrade. “She is super nice, too beautiful,” he replies. He doesn’t bring her back, Henri, he shares, blandly. The difference between a basilica and a cathedral, the meaning of the word cathedra, why the father superior of a monastery has the rank of bishop, he films flowers – the wild violet, his favorite -, photographs trees, names them. Very few self-portraits, landscapes filmed with his drone. His equipment: a Butagaz, a headlamp, a waterproof poncho, two notebooks, a first aid kit, a harmonica, which he does not know how to play but “the harmonica is so nice”, a Bible and the complete works in a volume by his “favorite writer”, Jean Raspail. He is like that Henry. He reveres Jean Raspail, author of camp of the saints, dystopian description of a France overwhelmed by immigration, darling author of the extreme right, grand prize of the French Academy too, and then Henri adores flamboyant Gothic, “this style that slaps”, he finds that France is beautiful, it lists its 170 cathedrals, it sleeps where it is welcomed. He has stopped shaving, the beard is trimmed, clean. He walks, he contemplates. Already 27 cathedrals on the clock when he stops in Annecy. “Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not want to sign”, wrote Théophile Gauthier. Who signed on June 8 in Annecy?