Emmanuel Macron kicks off on Sunday a long itinerary of commemorations retracing the battles of the Liberation, in 1944, and the end of the Occupation. The President of the Republic will pay tribute to the resistance fighters from the Glières plateau, in the Alps, then to the Jewish children deported from Maison d'Izieu, in Ain.
“This is the first step in a journey of memory linked to the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, which at the time marked the rebirth of the country with the return of the Republic home,”
it is emphasized at the Élysée .
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Several hundred resistance fighters gathered in Glières in the winter of 1944 to receive weapons drops from the Allies, before being killed or taken prisoner. The opportunity for Emmanuel Macron to once again celebrate the Resistance, after several ceremonies to this effect, including the entry into the Pantheon of Missak Manouchian and his comrades in February. But also to recall the
“gray zones”
of this period, in the words of the Élysée: French mobile guards and militia supported the German army when it attacked the maquis. At the Maison d'Izieu, the Head of State will commemorate the painful memory of the 44 Jewish children rounded up by the Lyon Gestapo, under the direction of Klaus Barbie, then exterminated at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Reval.
Joe Biden expected on June 6
Thus begins what the presidential entourage refers to as
“time two”
of the memory cycle open for the 80 years of the events linked to the Second World War, before a year 2025 focused on the armistice. After the Resistance, it was time for the Liberation, celebrated in several stages. On April 16, Emmanuel Macron will honor the Vercors resistance fighters. On May 8, he plans to go to Marseille to commemorate the liberation of the city. The memorial year will culminate at the beginning of June for the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, which the Head of State wishes to commemorate with great fanfare for three days, starting with a tribute to the paratroopers in Brittany on June 5. The presence of American President Joe Biden is expected at the major D-Day remembrance ceremony the next day.
Also read Commemorations of the Liberation: the brief but great life of Tom Morel, unsung hero of the Glières plateau
Vladimir Putin, who participated with Barack Obama in the 70th anniversary of François Hollande in 2014, is not invited, but the question of the presence of a Russian delegation is under consideration. This international event will not mark the end of the cycle, far from it. On June 10, Emmanuel Macron must go to Tulle (Corrèze) and Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) to honor the memory of the victims of Nazi abuses in 1944. On July 7, he will commemorate the death of the minister and resistance fighter Georges Mandel, assassinated by the militia in the forest of Fontainebleau. In August, it will be the turn of the landing of Provence, then the liberation of Paris, which will be the subject of a
“popular”
event around Place Denfert-Rochereau, announced the Élysée.
The memorial and electoral agendas are closely linked: the European elections on June 9 will be held just after the anniversary of the D-Day landings, at which Emmanuel Macron plans to speak
Finally, in November the liberation of Strasbourg will be commemorated after the fierce fighting of the Alsace campaign. This will conclude what Emmanuel Macron wanted as a memorial year in XXL format, by multiplying the meetings.
“2024 will remember the rebirth of our nation,”
proclaimed the head of state at the beginning of March in a video posted on social networks, with an obvious allusion to the name of his political party. In fact, the memorial and electoral agendas are closely linked: the European elections on June 9 will be held just after the anniversary of the D-Day landings, at which Emmanuel Macron plans to speak. From there to making it a meeting which would not say its name, by insisting on the return of war in Europe, of which the presidential camp makes a strong axis of the campaign, it is only a step that several Macronist strategists imagine already crossed.