The day of November 11, 2022 was particularly busy for the President of the French Republic according to AFP. Emmanuel Macron chaired the commemoration ceremony for the 104th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice in Paris on Friday, before a lunch at the Elysée with standard bearers, commissioners of the Flame of the Unknown Soldier and presidents of veterans’ associations. In the evening, accompanied by his wife and most faithful ally, the elegant Brigitte Macron, the leader received many international dignitaries for the Paris Forum for Peace at the Elysée Palace. Among the long list of guests, the artist Youssou N’Dour stands out. The Senegalese singer had already had the opportunity to speak with the presidential couple during the music festival in June.
On the morning of November 11, the Head of State laid a wreath and gathered in front of the statue of Georges Clémenceau on the Champs-Élysées, a few meters from the presidential palace. He then reviewed the troops in Place Charles-de-Gaulle then rekindled the flame of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, before calling the names of the soldiers who died for France since November 11, 2021. The head of the he State was welcomed at the Etoile by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, Secretaries of State Sarah El Haïry (Youth and Universal National Service) and Patricia Mirallès (Veterans and Memory), and the Chief of Defense Staff Thierry Burkhard.
The ceremony was attended by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the Senate Gérard Larcher and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, whom the French President greeted in the company of his counterpart. Argentinian Alberto Fernandez.
Armistice then Forum for Peace
That same day in the afternoon, Emmanuel Macron participated in the Forum for Peace which is being held at the Palais-Brongniart in Paris, before a closing dinner planned at the Élysée. Emmanuel Macron exchanged during this meeting with leaders of southern countries who called for “negotiations” to end the war in Ukraine, the consequences of which affect the whole world.
Emmanuel Macron also received Iranian women in Paris, whose “revolution they are leading” he hailed. “We welcomed with great honor and pleasure a delegation of Iranian women“, said the French president during the Paris Peace Forum. “I really want to tell them again our respect and our admiration in the context of the revolution they are leading.“, he added. According to the Elysée, the delegation was made up of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist based in New York who encourages Iranian women to protest against the obligation to wear the veil, Shima Babaei, who fights for information about her unknown father, Ladan Boroumand, co-founder of a Washington-based rights organization, and Roya Piraie.