Paris (AFP)

After a year without, Covid obliges, France returns to the tradition of the military parade on Wednesday on the occasion of its national day, but caution will remain in order as the country tries to avoid a fourth epidemic wave of the highly contagious Delta variant .

In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic's explosion, the July 14 parade had been canceled - unheard of since World War II - and replaced by a ceremony at the Place de la Concorde.

This year marks the return of troops, flags and armored vehicles to the famous Parisian avenue of the Champs-Elysées, but access to the show will be limited, spectators must have a health pass and wear a mask.

The gauge in the stands will also be set at 10,000 people against 25,000 in normal times.

At a time when the virus is on the rise in France, President Emmanuel Macron put pressure on the unvaccinated on Monday: the vaccination of caregivers will now be compulsory and a health pass will soon be requested at the entrance of most of the public places.

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For the military, the issue has already been settled: for several months, French troops sent on foreign operations have been obliged to be vaccinated.

The 2021 edition of the parade will mobilize 5,000 participants, including 4,300 soldiers on foot, 73 planes, 24 helicopters, 221 vehicles and 200 horses of the Republican Guard.

The Head of State will attend alongside his Chief of Defense Staff, General François Lecointre, who will give way a week later to the current Chief of Staff of the Army. , the legionary Thierry Burkhard.

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"Winning the future" is the theme of this 2021 edition, with a double reference to the health battle led by the French but also to the necessary preparation of the armies for "tougher, so-called high intensity engagements, based on high-tech equipment ", according to the military governor of Paris, General Christophe Abad.

The Griffon armored vehicle, a new generation personnel carrier, will parade for the first time.

It should soon be deployed in the Sahel.

- Tribute to municipal police officers -

After the traditional air parade opened by the Patrouille de France, a contingent of European special forces participating in the "Task Force Takuba" will launch the parade on foot on the Champs-Elysées.

Eight nations (France, Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Portugal, Sweden) contribute to this group initiated by France to support Malian forces in combat.

Takuba will occupy a central place in the future anti-jihadist system in the Sahel, where Paris intends to reduce its military personnel after eight years of presence.

"We must ensure that France is less alone to do the same thing, if not more", underlined Tuesday in Le Monde the General Lecointre, by evoking "the will to replace a mass of French maneuver by a European force, and if possible by other African partners ".

For the first time, municipal police officers, in this case from the city of Nice (south-east), will march in Paris on the front line of two attacks in recent years: the ram-truck attack which left 86 dead on the 14th. July 2016, then the attack in the Basilica of Nice in October 2020, during which 3 people were killed.

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The navy will honor its submariners, with the presence of the crew of the Emerald nuclear attack submarine (ANS), returning from a seven-month mission in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.

The Air Force, for its part, will parade its new Space Command, created in 2019.

The Armed Forces Health Service (SSA), very mobilized since the start of the pandemic which has left more than 111,000 dead in France, will also be represented.

The 2-hour parade will end in music with a choir of 120 young people.

At the end of the parade, several activities will be offered in the capital.

The public will be able to donate blood at the Hôtel des Invalides for the benefit of soldiers injured in operations.

In the evening, a fireworks display will sparkle the sky above the Eiffel Tower.

© 2021 AFP