Charlie Hebdo cartoonists scorns supporters: 'We vomit on you'

© AFP Photo/Pierre Duffour

Dutch comic book author Bernard Willem Holtrop, aka Willem, signs books in Angouleme, central France, on January 31, 2014

A prominent Dutch cartoonist at heaped scorn on the French satirical weekly's "new friends" since the massacre at its Paris offices on Wednesday.

"We have a lot of new friends, like the pope, Queen Elizabeth and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. It really makes me laugh," Bernard Holtrop, whose pen name is Willem, told the Dutch centre-left daily in an interview published Saturday.

France's far-right National Front leader "Marine Le Pen is delighted when the Islamists start shooting all over the place," said Willem, 73, a longtime Paris resident who also draws for the French leftist daily .

He added: "We vomit on all these people who suddenly say they are our friends."

Commenting on the global outpouring of support for the weekly, Willem scoffed: "They've never seen ."

"A few years ago, thousands of people took to the streets in Pakistan to demonstrate against . They didn't know what it was. Now it's the opposite, but if people are protesting to defend freedom of speech, naturally that's a good thing."

Willem was on a train between northwestern Lorient and Paris when he learned of Wednesday's attack by two Islamist gunmen as the paper was holding its weekly editorial meeting.

He told : "I never come to the editorial meetings because I don't like them. I guess that saved my life."

Willem stressed that must continue to publish. "Otherwise, (the Islamists) have won."

Source: AFP

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