Nationalism is betrayal, says Macron at WWI ceremony
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FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron led tributes to the millions of soldiers killed during World War I yesterday, holding an emotional ceremony in Paris attended by dozens of world leaders to commemorate the centenary of the Armistice.
US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and dozens of monarchs, princes, presidents and prime ministers joined Macron to mark the moment guns fell silent across Europe a century ago.
Those who fought in the trenches of WWI lived through an unimaginable hell, Macron said in a 20-minute address, highlighting that as well as the deaths of 10 million troops, millions of women were widowed and children orphaned.
“The lesson of the Great War cannot be that of resentment between peoples, nor should the past be forgotten,” said Macron, sorrow etched on the faces of former French soldiers standing to attention around him.
“It is our deeply rooted obligation to think of the future, and to consider what is essential,” he said.
The commemoration is the centerpiece of global tributes to honor those who died during the 1914-18 war and to commemorate the signing of the Armistice that brought the fighting to an end at 11am on November 11, 1918.
In a glass canopy at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, built by Emperor Napoleon in 1806, Trump, Merkel, Putin and the other leaders listened through earpieces as the French president spoke. Putin, who was last to arrive at the ceremony, gave Trump a brief thumbs up as he greeted them.
The commemoration included the reading by children of letters written by German, French and British soldiers during the war, a recital by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a moving performance of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero.
As Trump’s convoy made its way up the Champs Elysees, a bare-breasted protester from the Femen radical feminist group ran toward his motorcade, coming within a few meters before being apprehended by police.
Photographs appeared to show that she had the words “fake peacemaker” scrawled across her body.
In a rare public display of emotion by the leaders of two world powers, Macron and Merkel held hands on Saturday during a poignant ceremony in the Compiegne Forest, north of Paris, where French and German delegations signed the Armistice that ended the war.
The conflict was one of the bloodiest in history, reshaping Europe’s politics and demographics. Peace, however, was short-lived and two decades later Nazi Germany invaded its neighbors.
Macron spent the week in the build up to yesterday’s ceremony touring towns and former battlefields along France’s western front.
He warned of the dangers of the resurgence of nationalism in Europe, saying it posed a threat to the continent — a theme he touched on again in his speech.
“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is its betrayal,” Macron said.
“By saying our interests come first and others don’t matter we are erasing what makes a nation precious, what makes it live, what makes it great and most importantly of all, its moral values,” he said.
“Old demons are reawakening, ready to sow chaos and death,” he said, warning of how ideology, religion and a disregard for facts could be exploited. “History sometimes threatens to repeat its tragic patterns, and undermine the legacy of peace we thought we had sealed with the blood of our ancestors.”
The service concluded with the bugle call that was played at 11am on November 11, 1918, to signal the end of fighting on the Western Front.
After the ceremony, leaders returned to the Elysee Palace for a lunch hosted by Macron and his wife Brigitte.
Despite the show of unity at the Arc de Triomphe, tensions lurk beneath the surface.
Trump, whose hard-line nationalism has badly shaken the Western alliance, arrived in Paris on Friday criticizing host Macron for being “insulting.”
Trump took umbrage at a recent interview in which Macron talked about the need for a European army and cited the United States as a potential security risk.
During talks with Trump on Saturday, Macron said his remarks had been misinterpreted and that he was merely saying Europe needed to take greater ownership of its own security.
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