On the occasion of the November 11 commemorations, for the 105th anniversary of the armistice of 1918, the President of the Republic paid tribute to Georges Clemenceau, on the Champs-Elysées, and presided over an official ceremony at Place Charles- de-Gaulle, under the Arc de Triomphe.
In front of the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where the flame has been rekindled every day since 1923, Emmanuel Macron gave a speech paying tribute to the veterans as well as the three French soldiers who died in Iraq this summer.
The Head of State greeted “the unknown” who is “from all horizons”, from “all professions”, and from “all convictions, believer and Freemason, agnostic and free-thinker, Protestant and Muslim, Catholic and Jewish”.
“The flame will never go out”
“In the worst hours of the Second World War, on the very day of the Nazi invasion, the enemies of the time who were marching under the Arc did not dare prevent the flame from being rekindled, bowing to something greater than their hostility , the power of a people’s sacrifice for their ideals,” he said.
“This flame, always, accompanies our days and pierces our nights,” he said. “The nation does not forget (…). November 11, the day commemorating the armistice of the Great War, is now the day of all the dead for France. »
“The unknown is this resistance, this certain idea of ??France that we cherish (…). By falling for this carnal and spiritual land that is the soil of France, the Unknown Soldier signifies this fraternity of arms, of mourning and of hope, he continued. And the flame on his tomb, for a hundred years, has never been extinguished. And it will never go out. »
To celebrate this centenary, a sound and light show on the Arc de Triomphe will be organized on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., in the presence of hundreds of flag bearers.
Tribute to Alfred Dreyfus
At the beginning of the afternoon, the Minister of the Armed Forces, at the request of the President of the Republic, will pay a specific tribute, at the military school, to Alfred Dreyfus, an officer convicted because he was Jewish, then rehabilitated by the Republic.
“It is a question, through the figure of a man, who despite the injustice suffered, decided to keep the uniform of the Republic and fought for it in 14-18, to perpetuate those who knew how to do live the spirit of the Republic, by openly denouncing anti-Semitism,” specifies the Elysée.
On the sidelines of the commemorations in Paris, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that he would be “in heart and in thought” at the march against anti-Semitism on Sunday, denouncing “a lot of confusion” and “recovery” on this subject. “My role is rather to build the unity of the country and to be firm on values”, to “make decisions, to say words when they need to be said and to act, otherwise I can demonstrate every week” , he said.
