Millions march in France for freedom of speech

The leaders came to Paris to demonstrate their support for values like freedom of speech.

“When these values are threatened we can say only one thing: we have to stand united,” said Merkel.

The march was also attended by government leaders of smaller EU nations, like Charles Michel (Belgium), Boyko Borisov (Bulgaria), Zoran Milanovic (Croatia), Bohuslav Sobotka (Czech Republic), Helle Thorning-Schmidt, (Denmark), Antonis Samaras (Greece), Viktor Orban (Hungary), Laimdota Straujuma (Latvia), Mark Rutte (The Netherlands), Pedro Passos Coelho (Portugal), Klaus Iohannis (Romania) and Alexander Stubb (Finland).

The three European presidents were there - Jean-Claude Juncker (European commission), Martin Schulz (European parliament) and Donald Tusk (European council)- as was NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.

For at least one day, Paris was “capital of the world” French president Francois Hollande said.

The crowd, which moved through Paris at very slow pace due to the enormous amount of people, chanted “Je suis Charlie”, sang the national anthem La Marseillaise, and carried banners reading slogans like “Make fun, not war”.

Around 2,000 police officers and 1,350 soldiers were on duty in Paris on Sunday, according to France24.

According to the French government, between 1.2 and 1.6 million people marched in Paris, and around 3.7 million people in the entire country. It called the numbers “without precedent”.

Previous public manifestations of that magnitude in Paris took place for the liberation of the city in 1944, when 1 million people took to the streets, and the 1998 win of the football world championship, reported Le Monde.

Elsewhere in Europe, people also marched in solidarity. Around 20,000 marched in Brussels, the seat of the EU institutions, while there were also protests in cities like Berlin and Vienna.