Jacques Serais with AFP / Photo credit: FRANCOIS PAULETTO / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
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1:41 p.m., May 08, 2023
Accompanied by the great escort of the Republican Guard, on horseback and motorized, Emmanuel Macron went up the Champs-Elysées, in his car, windows closed in front of only a few dozen onlookers.
All gatherings have been banned around the famous avenue
To avoid the risk of casserolades, recurrent since the adoption of the pension reform, any gathering has indeed been prohibited around the famous avenue. Strict filters have also been put in place and the public kept at a safe distance from the parade.
“We wanted to see the president, we are very disappointed. We don’t really understand why there is all this mess”, laments Adrien Prevostot, blocked with his daughter 200 meters from the Champs-Elysées. “Military ceremonies are done so that the population is behind the flag. It’s still a shame for France”, abounds Stanislas, a resident of the district.
After joining the Arc de Triomphe, Emmanuel Macron gathered in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, before rekindling the flame, as tradition dictates.
Emmanuel Macron now expected in Lyon to pay tribute to Jean Moulin
It is expected in Lyon at the beginning of the afternoon, a trip under close surveillance. Calls to demonstrate were issued near the Memorial of the Montluc prison, where Jean Moulin and other figures of the Resistance were detained and where the tribute will take place. The Rhône prefecture has banned all gatherings in this area. The CGT had filed an appeal for interim relief against this ban, which was rejected by the courts.
In the former prison, Emmanuel Macron will pay tribute to the “French Resistance and to the victims of Nazi barbarism”, specifies the Elysée. He will be accompanied by the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye and the Secretary of State for Veterans and Memory, Patricia Miralles.
The ceremony, at the approach of the 80th anniversary of the arrest and death of Jean Moulin, opens a new memorial cycle which will continue on June 6, 2024 with the commemoration of the Normandy Landings and will end on May 8, 2025 for 80 years of Victory. Prefect from 1937 to 1940, first president of the National Council of Resistance (CNR), Jean Moulin was arrested on June 21, 1943 in Caluire, near Lyon, by the local head of the Gestapo, Klaus Barbie.
Horribly tortured, he kept silent and died, as a result of the injuries inflicted, on July 8, 1943 at Metz station on the train that was taking him to Germany. Emmanuel Macron will go to his cell and that of the “butcher of Lyon”, Klaus Barbie, who spent a week in Montluc after his arrest in 1983. He was sentenced to life imprisonment four years later.
“Spirit of Resistance”
The Head of State will exalt through Jean Moulin “this spirit of resistance which is specific to the French people”, indicates the Elysée. “This is what allowed General de Gaulle to become a key player vis-à-vis the Anglo-Saxons” and France to join the winning side after the mistakes of the collaborationist Vichy regime, underlines the presidency. “All this would not have been possible if Jean Moulin had not gathered around him all the forces of renewal”, coming from all political backgrounds.
The Head of State, who is trying to turn the page on the pension crisis, will he take the opportunity to launch a new call for “concord”? The prospect bristles in advance its opponents for whom the calls to demonstrate are legitimate, even on this day of commemoration. “It is Emmanuel Macron who is targeted, not Jean Moulin”, commented the rebellious MEP Manon Aubry on franceinfo. “Every time he goes out in the street, there will be massive social protest”
The President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, judges him “unacceptable” of possible gatherings. “There is a time for everything. (May 8, editor’s note), it is the time of memory, meditation and gathering in our country,” he said on Sunday.