The inhabitants, including a few children, followed one another in silence, with moist eyes, sometimes with white roses, in front of a room in this town near Béthune, where Lola’s father is from, to sign one of the four condolence registers.
No speaking, but a portrait of the little girl, adorned with many flowers, with a few words signed by her two older brothers, Jordan and Thibault, present on the spot: “You were the sun of our lives you will be the star of our nights.
Two young residents, Alyah and Chloé, 11 and 13 years old, came to submit their drawings. “I wrote him a poem, my mother helped me a little,” says the youngest. Chloé wanted to represent “an angel, because it’s a bit like her parents’ angel, and the dove to represent her in the sky watching over her loved ones”.
“Leaving a note won’t bring anyone back. But for the parents to see that they are supported, it will give them energy,” hopes a neighbor, Laetitia Sibilleau, 45, accompanied by her two daughters dressed in black.
Tears stream down the cheeks of one of them, Kimberly, who knew her “a little”.
– “Strict privacy” –
“This notebook will be kept for a long time by the parents, until the end of their lives”, imagines, with a tight throat, Daniel Konieczko, a former captain of the gendarmerie. “They’re going to tap into these messages to remember their daughter and all the people who loved her.”
Further on, Eléonore Poulet, 28, says she is very moved “that so many people have moved” in this town of around 1,600 inhabitants.
The funeral of the little girl, killed at the age of 12 in tragic conditions and then found in a trunk, will take place Monday at 2:30 p.m. in Lilles (Pas-de-Calais), her mother’s town of origin.
The ceremony, celebrated by the Bishop of Arras, will be open “to all those who wish to pay him a last tribute”, but “the burial in the cemetery will take place in the strictest privacy”, the parents said on Thursday. in a press release.
Gérald Darmanin will be present at the invitation of the family, said the entourage of the Minister of the Interior, confirming information from BFM TV.
The circumstances of Lola’s death and the profile of the suspect, of Algerian nationality and under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), have aroused strong criticism on the right and the far right.
– “Affection of the nation” –
But the parents strongly oppose “any use of their child’s name and image for political purposes”, as they stressed on Friday via a statement from their lawyer.
The girl’s family “first and foremost needs the respect and affection of the nation”, declared the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on Friday, on the sidelines of a European summit in Brussels, considering that ” all the parents live in their flesh what the parents of Lola live “.
Despite accusations of recovery, hundreds of people gathered Thursday evening in Paris in the presence of Eric Zemmour. Some demonstrators carried signs on which appeared the face of the schoolgirl.
The RN, which was initially to participate in the rally, finally organized a minute of silence at the same time in front of the National Assembly.
Another minute of silence was organized Friday evening in Perpignan, on the initiative of the mayor RN Louis Aliot, bringing together around forty people.
The RN deputy for Pas-de-Calais, Caroline Parmentier, was present in Fouquereuil but “as a citizen and representative of the inhabitants” of her constituency, she explained. She will be going to the funeral.
On Friday, tags — “Lax state, nationalist revenge” and “Justice for Lola” — were discovered on a mosque in Pessac, near Bordeaux.
