In the majority, the Prime Minister Jean Castex, former member of LR and claimed "social Gaullist", will lay a wreath on the tomb of the man of June 18 around 10:00 am, then will participate in the ceremony in front of the Cross of Lorraine, symbol of resistance.

This pilgrimage of November 9 is a great classic in political life, even more so as the presidential election approaches.

This year it takes on the appearance of a cultural battle, the right and left contenders particularly targeting the possible candidate Eric Zemmour and his sulphurous media outings about Marshal Pétain.

The five candidates for the LR nomination (from l to r) Michel Barnier, Valérie Pécresse, Philippe Juvin, Eric Ciotti and Xavier Bertrand on the LCI set on November 8, 2021 bertrand GUAY POOL / AFP

In full internal competition on the right, the day after their first televised debate, the five candidates for the LR nomination - Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Eric Ciotti, Philippe Juvin and Valérie Pécresse - will be traveling, as will Christian Jacob, the president of the left.

On the left, two personalities make it a symbol this year in the fight against the "appropriation" of history by Eric Zemmour.

Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo (PS), who already attended the ceremony every year as mayor of Paris, this time intends to fight "in hollow against Eric Zemmour" and "put history in its place", according to his entourage .

On the 10th, she will also lay three wreaths in tribute to Christian, Muslim and Israelite fighters at the Necropolis of Douaumont.

The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (C) collects in front of the grave of General de Gaulle on November 9, 2016 in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises François NASCIMBENI AFP / Archives

The former socialist minister Arnaud Montebourg, also a candidate, launched "an appeal to all those, from the Communists to the Gaullists, who inherited Free France and the National Council of the Resistance, to go to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises to form a wall of silence and silence Mr. Zemmour ".

Eric Zemmour went on June 18 in the birthplace of the statesman in Lille, to greet there in mirror of his potential candidacy for the Elysee "a writer" who is "anything but a professional politician", eager to "save" France.

But the identity polemicist will not come to Colombey while rumors - denied by his entourage - circulated on a possible announcement of candidacy on the spot.

Le Pen in Bayeux

His scorners criticize his propensity to lie history when he asserts that Marshal Pétain saved French Jews, or that the civil war, he said in 2018, "it was the Communists who started it by executing French who were collaborators ".

The candidate of RN Marine Le Pen will be in Bayeux (Calvados) to salute, despite the history of her party which has fought for a long time, the legacy of General de Gaulle on the "sovereignty" and "unity" of country.

Marine Le Pen attends a meeting with nursing staff, November 4, 2021 in Mulhouse SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

The far-right leader wondered Monday on BFMTV and RMC "if the submission of France to an extranational authority like the European Union (...) would correspond" to the "vision" of the general, and what he " could think "of the" war of all against all imposed by Emmanuel Macron in the country ".

After laying a wreath in front of La Croix de Lorraine, in Courseulles-sur-mer, Marine Le Pen is due to deliver a speech on the institutions at Place de Gaulle in Bayeux, where the general spoke in June 1944 after the landing and in June 1946 on the future Constitution.

"On the eve of the presidential election, everyone comes (to Colombey). The following year, I'm all alone," quipped the sovereignist candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, present every year, as the former right-hand man by Marine Le Pen and President of the Patriots, Florian Philippot.

On the general public side, the Charles de Gaulle memorial, place of exhibitions and historic center, faces a "worrying" financial situation, notes the regional chamber of accounts in a report published in July.

Between 2015 and 2019, "attendance increased from 75,795 to 62,471 visitors, all audiences combined".

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© 2021 AFP