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COMPIEGNE, France (Reuters) – A hundred years after the World War I weapons were silenced, the French and German leaders held hands and sat down at the head of each other. a poignant ceremony marking the signing of the peace agreement of the armistice.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hug after the unveiling of a plaque in the Rethondes Glade during an Armistice Day commemorative ceremony, a hundred years later. the end of the First World War, in Compiègne, France, November 10, 2018. REUTERS / Philippe Wojazer / Pool
President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel inspected the troops of a mixed Franco-German brigade before unveiling a plaque honoring the reconciliation and rebirth of friendship between the enemies of two wars world.
More than 3 million French and German soldiers were among the 10 million soldiers who died during the Great War of 1914-1918. Most of the most violent fighting took place in trenches in northern France and Belgium.
A German delegation signed the armistice before sunrise on November 11, 1918 in a private train belonging to the commander of the French forces, Ferdinand Foch, parked on a railway crossing the forest of Compiegne. A few hours later, at 11 o'clock, the war ended.
"Europe has been at peace for 73 years. It is at peace because we want it, because Germany and France want peace, "Macron told several young people, with Merkel at his side, evoking peace since the end of the Second World War. World War in 1945
"So, the message, if we want to live up to the sacrifice of those soldiers who said," Never again! ", Is never to give in to our weakest instincts, nor to the efforts to divide us."
In a powerful union show, Macron and Merkel sat inside the restored teak-coated railway wagon in which the peace charter was signed and ran through a souvenir book. After everyone signed the book, they held hands a second time.
Near Europe
The French and German delegations met for the last time at the same place, when Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany forced the French authorities to surrender after invading the city in 1940.
Since the Second World War, France and Germany have strengthened European cooperation and the European Union has become the largest trading bloc in the world.
Macron, 40, a strong supporter of a closer Europe, turned to Merkel to help deepen his economic integration into the EU's single currency bloc, as well as greater collaboration in areas such as defense and immigration.
Merkel, 64, had been waiting for years for one of France's most zealous leaders for Europe. But the fragility of his government coalition and his own weakened leadership, as well as his reluctance to deal with aspects of Macron's vision for renewal, meant that it had not acted as quickly as Macron would have liked.
Last week, the French leader visited sites that once stood along the western front, from the battlefields of Verdun to the east at the imposing Thiepval memorial overlooking the Somme Valley. There, he and British Prime Minister Theresa May laid a wreath together on Friday.
Along the way, he warned of the growing threat to Europe posed by a resurgence of nationalism.
"Nationalism is rising through Europe, nationalism calling for the closure of borders, which preaches the rejection of the other," he said in a radio interview on Tuesday. "He plays on fears, everywhere. Europe is more and more fractured. "
Report by Michaela Cabrera to Compiègne and Richard Lough in Paris; written by Richard Lough; Edited by Luke Baker and Matthew Mpoke Bigg
