[ad_1]
PARIS.- "Nationalism is a treason of patriotism." With this pithy phrase, pronounced yesterday before 72 heads of state and government gathered in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned all populists and autocrats of the planet, including US President Donald Trump.
converted for a day in the world capital of peace, Macron took advantage of the impact of the commemoration of the centenary of the armistice of the First World War to urge the world to "add our hopes rather than to counter our fears ".
The world's leading leaders, gathered in the Arc de Triomphe to attend the central ceremony, called for a "battle for peace".
Macron warned in his message that "the demons of the past are resurfacing" and drew a parallel between disappointed hopes after the 1918 peace and the defense of multilateralism as the only way to resolve international conflicts.
In his message, he called to reject scinación by withdrawal, violence and domination. Veiled allusion to Trump, fervent defender of unilateralism, who marked his stay in the French capital by refusing to participate in some of the most symbolic activities of commemoration, such as the Forum for Peace, organized by Macron.
invited guests, in a persistent rain, were present, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel; King Mohammed V of Morocco; Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau (Canada) and Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel); Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
Among those absent was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Hungary and Italy were represented by their respective presidents. No first-clbad leader from Britain, who commemorated the end of the 1918 armistice at a separate ceremony in London, attended the ceremony.
The ceremony began at 11 am, at the same time. One hundred years after the end of the Great War, a conflict in just over four years left 6 million dead, 8 million civil and military.
The bells of all the churches of France sounded just as the dignitaries arrived on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees and were heading together to the Arc de Triomphe.
The only ones absent from this event of international union were the Presidents of the United States. and Russia, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, who, citing "security reasons", decided to travel in armored limousines. The invited leaders then had lunch at the Elysee, while their wives were attending a reception given by Brigitte Macron at the Palace of Versailles.
In the afternoon, Trump briefly went to a North American military cemetery in Suresnes. in the suburbs of Paris, to try to appease the critics who had led to the cancellation of his Saturday visit to the North American necropolis of Bois Belleau, 90 km from Paris.
Most of the other guests attended the inauguration of the first Paris Forum for Peace and Democracy, to be held in the future every year on the sidelines of the official celebration of the National Day on July 14 . At this symposium, Macron again denounced Trump's policy by recalling "until national arrogance and military arrogance can lead". Merkel took up this message by saying that "the First World War showed us how isolationist can be destructive" and called for "not being led by national interests".
Source link
