German Head of State Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin - HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / POOL / AFP

Several European leaders called Friday, for the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, to catch the breath of 1945 in the fight against the pandemic which is destabilizing the world. "We must not accept that the peace order" put in place from 1945 "goes up in smoke before our eyes," said German Head of State Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a speech in Berlin, "we we want more and not less cooperation in the world, including in the fight against the pandemic ”.

In a more national register, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also drew a parallel. "On this anniversary, we are engaged in a new fight against the coronavirus which requires the same spirit of national effort that you embodied 75 years ago," Boris Johnson wrote to veterans. In London, the "Red Arrows" of the Royal Air Force acrobatic patrol flew over the city center, while the television channels marked two minutes of silence.

Restricted format

The epidemic, which has killed at least 266,919 people worldwide since its appearance in December in China, was omnipresent during the commemorations of May 8, limiting them to their minimum. In France, the Head of State Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony in Paris in a restricted format, on an almost empty Place de l'Etoile. He laid a wreath in front of the statue of General de Gaulle to the sound of the ringing of the dead, and went up in small escort the Champs-Elysées.

In the United States, President Donald Trump will lay a wreath in front of the World War II memorial in Washington. But the ceremonies in Germany attracted particular attention because, ordinarily, this country does not commemorate very little or very the anniversary day of the capitulation of the Nazi regime vis-à-vis the Allies. This time, the municipality of Berlin decided to make it a public holiday, an initiative limited to the German capital and to the year 2020.

The German president called on his compatriots to consider May 8 as a day of "gratitude" and not bitterness for the defeat, the suffering suffered during the Allied bombings, the expulsion of the German populations from the territories of Europe. Is or the loss of territory. "Yes, we Germans can say today: liberation day is a day of gratitude! ", He said, and" it took three generations for us to be able to say it wholeheartedly. "

"Gratitude"

Walter Steinmeier was thus referring to another speech made by one of his predecessors, Richard von Weizsäcker, and which has gone down in history. In 1985, for the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, the latter had for the first time spoken of a "day of liberation". By using the term "gratitude" this time, Germany takes another step, at a time when the far right is questioning the culture of German repentance for Nazi crimes.

The Alternative Party for Germany (AfD) condemned the celebrations. Its chief executive, Alexander Gauland, said that May 8 remained an "absolute defeat". Germany lost its "autonomy" that day to "shape its future," he said. "The Germans are presented mainly as victims" the day of May 8, reacted the president of the national Jewish community Josef Schüster. "I find this to be an irresponsible historical relativization of Nazi crimes," he said.

Elsewhere, in Moscow, where “Victory Day” is celebrated on May 9, the great military parade in Red Square to which dozens of foreign dignitaries were invited, has been postponed in the name of health security, only the aerial part being maintained. President Vladimir Putin must address the Russians who are awaiting decisions above all after May 11, when the confinement decreed for over a month to prevent the spread of the coronavirus ends.

In London, Queen Elisabeth II will speak Friday evening years a message broadcast on BBC One at 20h, "the exact time when his father King George VI had spoken on the radio in 1945," said a press release from government.

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