Dizy-le-Gros (France) (AFP)
To the sound of the bugle and the Marseillaise sung a cappella, Emmanuel Macron celebrated Sunday morning in the Aisne "the French spirit of resistance" and launched a vibrant appeal for the unity of the French, invoking the spirit of General de Gaulle which he celebrated an unknown fact of arms during the Battle of France in 1940, the Montcornet counter-offensive.
It was in front of a modest monument, erected in the middle of the countryside in La-Ville-aux-Bois-les-Dizy, that the Head of State told with lyricism the brief counter-attack carried out against the German advance, in full debacle by Colonel Charles de Gaulle then unknown. An offensive based on armored vehicles in which the staff hardly believed, and which slowed down the enemy for a few hours of this Battle of France which caused 60,000 French deaths from May 10, 1940.
"The battle was lost, but there are one-day defeats that carry within them the germ of victories to come. The battle of Montcornet is one of these," said Emmanuel Macron, as if to call the French to hope in the face of the health and economic crisis.
The head of state, who has often been criticized for controversial comments on the French, this time celebrated a "French spirit that never resolves defeat", and insisted on the necessary unity of the country, as he the fact since the beginning of the health crisis: "De Gaulle tells us that France is strong when it knows its destiny, when it stands united, when it seeks the path of cohesion in the name of a certain idea of France , which brings us together beyond the discords then become accessories ".
He also celebrated in de Gaulle a chief "promoter of the movement and the offensive", which "was heard too late". But he refrained from talking about "sovereignty", a value attached to Gaullism and which he has nevertheless put forward since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
What Charles de Gaulle did in May 1940 "in a situation which seemed inextricable", then commented government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye, "it is basically to sublimate the spirit of resistance, and even the spirit of conquest ".
Before his speech, Emmanuel Macron had meditated to the sound of the bugle in front of the small war memorial at Dizy-le-Gros.
He was accompanied during these two stages, virus forces, only a handful of guests, including descendants of the soldiers who died in the offensive, Yves de Gaulle, one of the grandchildren of the General, the president of the region Xavier Bertrand, the Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin and the former Minister of the Economy Hervé Gaymard, president of the Charles de Gaulle Foundation.
No fanfare either but a moving Marseillaise sung in cappella by four members of the French army choir.
- 'Quarrel over recovery' -
Scheduled for a long time, this presidential trip is the first, in more than two months, not to be devoted to the fight against the coronavirus.
It kicks off a year of tribute to de Gaulle which will continue on June 18 for the 80th anniversary of the famous call, at Mont-Valérien and perhaps in London, then on November 9 at Colombey-les -Two churches for the 50th anniversary of his death.
His political opponents criticize Emmanuel Macron for wanting to recover a historical figure which is now almost undisputed, after having already used multiple references to Georges Clémenceau, the strong man of the Great War.
In a tribute in tribute to de Gaulle in the JDD, Xavier Bertrand, considered as one of the potential presidential candidates of 2022, estimated that a head of state should "lead his country with a firm hand without worry about its popularity "and" must not have the pathological need to be loved but must entirely be in France ".
Emmanuel Macron is "the absolute anti-de Gaulle", for his part scathed Marine Le Pen. For the president of the RN, "all the globalist action of Emmanuel Macron, for the removal of borders, for the uninterrupted transfer of sovereignty to supranational structures goes in the opposite of what was the political line of General de Gaulle" .
But for the grandson of the general, Yves de Gaulle, "this quarrel over recuperation (sic) is a completely imbecile quarrel. That a President of the Republic refers to his illustrious predecessor is the least of things. that of recovery, I find it completely silly ".
jri-leb / cs / alc
© 2020 AFP