PARIS ATTACKS: President Francois Hollande: ‘France at war with cowards’

French president Francois Hollande said France was at war against cowards, and not in a clash of civilisations, after militant attacks killed at least 132 people in and around Paris last Friday.

“France is at war,” Hollande told parliamentarians. “But we’re not engaged in a war of civilisations, because these assassins do not represent any.”

It was the first time in more than six years that a French president addressed both houses of parliament, the Senate and the National Assembly, convened in a so-called Congress at Versailles. It is a procedure reserved for constitutional revisions and major presidential speeches.