Back to basics.
At the heart of the health and terrorist crises, against the backdrop of the climate crisis, at the dawn of economic, social and political crises, Emmanuel Macron tries to make the national fiber vibrate.
On the occasion of the pantheonization of Maurice Genevoix and the fighters of the First World War, the President of the Republic evoked the France of then, one often thought of that of today.
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"From those of 14 to those today, we French people are very much alive,
" said Emmanuel Macron under the nave of the Pantheon in a very solemn ceremony.
Their sacrifice speaks of our debt and our duties. ”
A way to remind the country of its history, the terrifying tragedies it has gone through and how it has always recovered.
Emmanuel Macron thus evoked
“the story of women and men animated by the courage of those who know why they are fighting.
French courage.
The same one that had raised those of 1789, the volunteers of Year II, of all our wars ”.
The same that will allow the country to recover from the trials it is currently going through.
It was necessary to recall what the French nation is, its historical continuity, what it means to be French
Emmanuel Macron
"Today we are facing an unprecedented combination of crises,"
explains an adviser to the Head of State.
We had to remember what the French nation is, its historical continuity, what it means to be French. ”
Drawing on the past to shed light on an uncertain present, the method is well known.
All the Presidents of the Republic have used it on the occasion of traditional commemorative ceremonies or republican high masses.
Emmanuel Macron was no exception, sprinkling his speech with allusions to the subjects of current concern but refusing to establish a direct link between the two periods.
He praised here
“the strength of soul of a whole people”
and honored there
“the French courage”.
What allowed the country to survive the Great War, which will perhaps allow it tomorrow to overcome the great epidemic.
The presence of the coronavirus crisis was subliminal at the heart of the Pantheon.
Containment and sanitary restriction measures oblige, the nave of the monument was almost empty.
A ceremony in small groups and without an audience, as in the morning under the Arc de Triomphe for the commemoration ceremony of November 11.
There too, the crisis was subliminal, terrorist this one.
In front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the names of the nineteen French soldiers who have died for a year in the course of their operations have been recalled.
The Head of State did not call for "the art of being French" but it is just like
"In the chaos, despite everything, moments save despair, life resists",
echoed Emmanuel Macron in the evening at the Pantheon.
According to him, this
“French courage”
is also the one which made it possible to
“build, with our Europe, the peace that we owed them.
Not a peace made up of cowardice and renouncement but that of a constant dialogue, respectful of our histories, our differences, our values ”.
The Head of State did not call for
"the art of being French"
but it is just like.
He had brandished this expression for the first time after the crisis of “yellow vests” in an attempt to revive his five-year term.
It is at the same point, except that, since, the deadline of the presidential election has approached.