Источник: Washingtonpost.com
Macron denounces nationalism as a ‘betrayal of patriotism’ in rebuke to Trump at WWI remembrance
French President Emmanuel
Macron condemned nationalism during a speech in Paris Nov. 11 marking
the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
PARIS —
In the shadow of a grand war memorial here, French President Emmanuel
Macron marked the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I by
delivering a forceful rebuke against rising nationalism, calling it a
“betrayal of patriotism” and warning against “old demons coming back to
wreak chaos and death.”
His words during a
solemn Armistice Day ceremony under overcast skies at the foot of the
Arc de Triomphe in the heart of the French capital were intended for a
global audience. But they also represented a pointed rebuke to President
Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others among the more than
60 world leaders in attendance.
Speaking in
French, Macron emphasized that a global order based on liberal values is
worth defending against those who have sought to disrupt that system.
The millions of soldiers who died in the Great War fought to defend the
“universal values” of France, he said, and to reject the “selfishness of
nations only looking after their own interests. Because patriotism is
exactly the opposite of nationalism.”
Macron
has attempted to stand as a vocal counterweight to Trump, who recently
called himself a “nationalist” and has moved to set the United States
apart from global treaties, including the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris
climate accord and a U.N. program for refugees.
Amid
growing divisions in Europe that have strained the European Union,
Macron defended that institution and the United Nations, declaring that
the “spirit of cooperation” has “defended the common good of the world.”
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, far left, first lady Melania Trump, President Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day. (Benoit Tessier/POOL/EPA-EFE)
“By putting our
own interests first, with no regard for others, we erase the very thing
that a nation holds dearest, and the thing that keeps it alive: its
moral values,” Macron said.
He denounced fringe
ideologies that have become more mainstream, warping religious beliefs
and setting loose extremist forces on a “sinister course once again that
could undermine the legacy of peace we thought we had forever sealed.”
The remarks came as the world leaders gathered here have sought to mark the 100 years since the war
by honoring those who served and died. Among those who participated
were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
British
Prime Minister Theresa May did not attend, remaining in London to
preside over a war remembrance there, though she visited France last
week to lay wreaths at military cemeteries and meet with Macron. Chinese
President Xi Jinping also was not present.
President Trump spoke Nov.
11 at a U.S. cemetery in France on the 100th anniversary of the World
War I armistice. Here are key moments from that speech.
Putin told Russia’s RT network after
the ceremony that he and Trump spoke during a leaders’ luncheon but
that a formal meeting would wait until they cross paths at the Group of
20 summit in Buenos Aires later this month. Putin said he and Trump
agreed to a request from French officials not to overshadow the war
remembrance ceremony.
“We
are ready for dialogue,” Putin said, adding a dig at the Trump
administration for announcing that the United States would withdraw from
a landmark Cold War arms pact. “We’re not the ones exiting the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.”
Ahead
of the ceremony, dozens of world leaders wearing black strode
shoulder-to-shoulder along the Champs-Elysees toward the Arc. Military
jets streaked overhead, emitting red, white and blue smoke, the colors
of France.
Trump and Putin did not participate
in the processions. The group, which had first gathered at the Elysee
Palace, had come to the Arc on tour buses along the 230-foot-wide
boulevard. Bells at Notre Dame Cathedral tolled at 11 a.m., marking the
signing of the armistice of a war in which 10 million troops perished.
But
Trump and Putin took their own motorcades to the event and made
separate entrances a few minutes after the main group. A White House
spokeswoman said Trump arrived separately due to “security protocols,”
though she did not elaborate.
Trump
and Putin shook hands with other leaders assembled on risers at the
foot of the monument, and took their positions. Trump and first lady
Melania Trump stood next to Merkel, while Putin stood next to Macron.
The ceremony could begin.
To
the sound of a military brass band, Macron inspected French troops
standing at attention and a choir sang the national anthem. Cellist
Yo-Yo Ma performed a solo piece.
For Trump,
dressed in a dark-blue suit and red tie, the ceremony marked the
beginning of a day in which he also attended a luncheon with world
leaders and then delivered a speech at the Suresnes American Cemetery
and Memorial — a day after he skipped a visit to a different cemetery.
At
Suresnes, Trump ditched an umbrella and spoke in the rain for 10
minutes, at one point joking that the crowd was “getting drenched.”
“It
is our duty to preserve the civilization they defended,” Trump said of
the 1,541 buried there. “We renew our sacred obligation to memorialize
our fallen heroes.”
He did not address Macron’s speech.
The
relationship between Trump and Macron has soured as the U.S. president
has promoted an “America First” foreign policy that has unsettled allies
on trade and defense. Macron has sought to counter some of Trump’s
agenda, and he organized a three-day Peace Forum that began Sunday
afternoon, just as Trump headed home to Washington on Air Force One.
For European observers, the commemoration was a somber event — and not exclusively because of the dead it honored.
In
a climate of resurgent nationalism — which has brought upheavals in
Rome, Budapest, Warsaw and even London — Macron was alone on the dais,
preaching the virtues of multilateralism. Merkel, his most loyal partner
in that endeavor, has announced she will soon leave public life.
“Franco-German
reconciliation was at the very heart of what we’ve been seeing
together,” said Dominique Moïsi, a French foreign policy expert at the
Paris-based Institute Montaigne and an informal adviser to the Macron
campaign.
“But she’s out,” he said of Merkel,
who announced she will step down in 2021. “The spirit in which we are
commemorating the events is no longer fully present.”
Macron’s
speech was full of literary allusions, including the French poets
Guillaume Apollinaire and Charles Péguy, both of whom served in World
War I. (Péguy was killed in combat in 1914.)
Sunday’s
address also contained a number of historical rebukes. Macron made a
subtle reference to a well-known 1927 French book that decried the
elites at the time, who embraced reactionary, nationalistic ideologies
at the expense of a rational consensus.
Taking
the stage to applause at the Paris Peace Forum later Sunday, Macron
avoided presenting the weekend’s event as a success. Instead, he said
history would remember the image of multiple world leaders whose
countries were once at war gathered in peace under the Arc.
The question, Macron said, was how that image would be interpreted.
“Will
it be the symbol of a durable peace among nations?” he asked. “Or, on
the contrary, a photograph of a final moment of unity before the world
descends into a new disorder?”
Anton Troianovski in Moscow contributed to this report.
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