AKIPRESS.COM - One year on, an anxious, fragmented France is paying tribute to the victims of the killings at Charlie Hebdo magazine, with old divisions made worse by what President Francois Hollande has called "a terrible year".

After the Islamist attacks that killed 17 on January 7-9 last year at the satirical weekly and at a Jewish supermarket, the French rallied, marched and lit candles in emotional gatherings celebrated as "the spirit of January 11", the day four million took to the streets, reports Reuters.

But cracks in that unity soon appeared and, a year later, after an even bloodier assault on Paris by another set of home-grown Islamists in November, politicians are embroiled in a bitter debate over homeland security, and the anti-immigrant National Front (FN) is stronger than ever.

The slogan "Je suis Charlie," a defiant cry of solidarity that appeared everywhere immediately after the killings, is little seen a year on.

"Events such as the January or November attacks trigger moments of unity, in reaction. But that is not enough to offset deep divisions," said Brice Teinturier, head of the Ipsos polling organization in France.

"The divisions are huge. There are several Frances and they are clashing," he said, describing a France of big cities turned towards the future, a rustbelt France that feels crushed by globalization, and a France of housing estates that feels forgotten.

Regional elections last month highlighted those divisions.

In the first round, the National Front came first, doing well in rural and small-town France. In the run-off, voters in big cities helped to keep the Front out of power, exposing another deep split, this time between those who look to the far-right for hope and those who reject it.

In a further sign of tension, a Muslim prayer hall was ransacked to cries of "Arabs out" during a protest rally in Corsica after firemen were attacked last month on a housing estate with a large migrant population.