Summon de Gaulle to place yourself above the fray. This is the exercise that Emmanuel Macron will engage in Sunday at Montcornet in the Aisne. Admittedly, it will commemorate a military defeat, but it will especially celebrate a moral victory, that of France which does not surrender, embodied in this month of May 1940 by Colonel de Gaulle, future leader of Free France.
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Asserting the strength of national unity
A ceremony is scheduled at 11 am, it will be accompanied by a speech in resonance with the period we live in, even if the Elysée insures that "we should not expect an act of political refoundation". Nevertheless, while Emmanuel Macron calls for a form of national unity in this period of health crisis triggered by the coronavirus, this commemoration is no coincidence. One of his relatives assumes it: "The themes of going beyond parties, unity, rallying inspired Emmanuel Macron".
These eminently Gaullian themes have so far not really found an echo in the political class of 2020.