Alexis Delafontaine with AFP / Photo credit: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to Jean Moulin and the Resistance, this Monday, May 8 in Lyon, after the traditional Victory ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. Commemorations under high security in the face of new demonstrations expected against the Head of State and the pension reform.
As with every celebration of the victory over Nazi Germany, on May 8, 1945, the Head of State will go up the Champs-Elysées in Paris, accompanied by the large escort of the Republican Guard, on horseback and motorized. Then, he must join the Arc de Triomphe at 11 a.m. for the laying of the wreath, the rekindling of the flame and the minute of silence in front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in the presence of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Prohibited gatherings
Faced with the risk of “casserolades”, recurrent since the adoption of the pension reform, all gatherings have been banned near the Champs-Elysées. In Lyon, the situation could be tense with calls to demonstrate, which could bring together several hundred people according to a police source, near the Montluc prison memorial, where Jean Moulin and other Resistance figures were detained and where the tribute ceremony will take place.
The Rhône prefecture has banned all gatherings in this area and the CGT has announced that it is filing an interim appeal against this ban. Emmanuel Macron is expected around 2:30 p.m. at the old prison for a 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.
Opening of a new memory cycle
The Lyon ceremony, as the 80th anniversary of the arrest and death of Jean Moulin approaches, 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 the 80th anniversary 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 night in Montluc after his arrest in 1983. He was sentenced to life imprisonment four years later.
Jean Moulin, the spirit of Free France
The Head of State will recall “the essential political role” played by Jean Moulin in the unification of the Resistance and the emergence of a free France and “to exalt through him 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 horizons, she observes. 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”? This prospect bristles its adversaries in advance.
“The best tribute that can be paid (to the Resistants) is to defend their heritage, that (..) of Social Security and pay-as-you-go retirement”, comments the CGT du Rhône. The President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, considers for his part “unacceptable” the calls to demonstrate on such a day. “There is a time for everything. (May 8) is the time for memory, meditation and gathering in our country,” he said on Sunday.