[ad_1]
Emmanuel Macron's week promises to be busy. The Head of State meets again Sunday, November 4 in Strasbourg his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in prelude to an unprecedented presidential road trip through the east and north of France to celebrate the centenary of the end of the First World War World. From Verdun to the Somme, the tenant of the Elysee will cross eleven departments in a week to go to the battlefields of the Great War and to meet a peripheral France hit by the crisis.
This trip, in "new format", according to the Elysee, will end Sunday, November 11 under the Arc de Triomphe. Emmanuel Macron will revive the flame of the unknown soldier in the presence of a hundred foreign leaders. The trip will have a triple dimension. Memoriale first since it is to honor the memory of some eight million French who fought from 1914 to 1918, for 1.4 million deaths, ten years after the disappearance of the last hairy, Lazare Ponticelli. Diplomatic then, while the president will be accompanied at several stages by foreign heads of state or government, even before the final bouquet of Sunday, November 11 in Paris where we expect including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Finally, "roaming" will have a strong political and social connotation at a time when the president is at the bottom of the polls and the growls of the French rise on the issue of purchasing power.
Read also 11 November: Trump and Putin meet in Paris
Far from Paris
Accused by the opposition of being the exclusive president of the rich and cities, Emmanuel Macron will spend a week away from Paris and away from major cities, with the exception of Strasbourg. In total, he will visit seventeen cities, mostly of medium size, such as Charleville-Mezieres, where a decentralized council of ministers will be held Wednesday, November 7. "Each step will be an opportunity to address the current concerns of the territories visited, which try to rebound after being struck by deindustrialization and agricultural upheavals," said the Elysee.
Read also Quiriny – From the president of the rich to the president of the cash
The head of state will visit factories, including that of Renault in Maubeuge (North), not far from the steel mill of Ascoval, threatened with closure. He will visit an EHPAD to discuss health services in rural areas and will devote a morning in Lens to the plan to fight against poverty. At each stage, he will meet local officials with whom the executive tries to renew after months of tension. The kick-off was given in Strasbourg, a symbolic city of the Franco-German reconciliation where, after a military ceremony, MM. Macron, accompanied by his wife Brigitte, and Steinmeier will attend in the evening in Notre Dame Cathedral a concert of works by Debussy and Beethoven. Emmanuel Macron will then visit the unmissable sites of the war: Verdun (Meuse), "the mother of the battles", the Chemin des Dames (Aisne) or the national necropolis of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (Pas-de-Calais) .
Peace as a red thread
He will also stop in places that have "never been visited by a French president". Like that of the terrible battle of Morhange (Moselle) where Mr. Macron goes Monday, November 5. Or that of Les Eparges (Meuse) where the president will gather Tuesday, November 6 before the statue of Maurice Genevoix, for which the Elysee says have engaged a "reflection" about a possible future "pantheonization". On Wednesday, November 7, the head of state will be accompanied by his Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in Reims to honor the "Black Army" of African tirailleurs. Friday, November 9, he will be at the side of British Prime Minister Theresa May on a site of the Battle of the Somme.
Before the return to Paris, the journey will end Saturday, November 10 with a very symbolic ceremony with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the clearing of Rethondes, Compiegne (Oise), where was signed the armistice. "We will be in the footsteps of Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand in 1984 in Verdun," said the Elysee. The absence, decried by some, military parade is perfectly badumed by the Elysee who preferred to focus on peace and Franco-German reconciliation.
Peace will also be the thread of the day of November 11, with the traditional ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe. Emmanuel Macron will take the floor, before letting Angela Merkel deliver the opening speech of the Peace Forum to be held in the afternoon at La Villette.
Source link
