FRESHLY painted in pale turquoise, “La Belle Equipe”, a bistro in eastern Paris, reopened this week after months of anguish. During last November’s terrorist attacks, 20 people were shot dead there. Four months on, the French are trying to turn the page after the worst-ever terrorist attack on their soil. But the latest carnage in Brussels is a bloody reminder that France, and all of Europe, will have to learn to live with terrorism.
After two deadly terrorist attacks in 2015, France, home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, has been more alert to the threat than any other European country. Manuel Valls, the prime minister, frequently takes to the airwaves to remind the French of their vulnerability. In Munich last month he warned fellow Europeans: “We have entered a new era, marked by the long-term presence of hyper-terrorism.” It was the end, he said, of “insouciance”.
As in America after the September 11th attacks, the French response has been to shift the balance between civil liberties and security firmly towards security. In November France became the only European country to declare a state of emergency over terrorism; it remains…
