Macron bets on commemorations to create common national narrative

Having barely concluded the first act of his commemorations of the 80^th anniversary of WWII − that of “the Resistance as a form of resilience,” which he began with the tribute to Jean Moulin in 2023 and ended with the induction of foreign resistance fighters Missak and Mélinée Manouchian into the Panthéon, on February 21, 2024 − French President Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday, April 7, initiated the second act, dubbed “the Liberation as the rebirth of the country.” The president first paid tribute to the resistance fighters of the Plateau des Glières, in the French Alps, who were eliminated by the German army at the end of March 1944. He then traveled to the nearby village of Izieu, to honor the memory of the 44 Jewish children who were rounded up by the Gestapo on April 6, 1944, and then deported and murdered at Auschwitz.

This two-part trip is just the first step in a long series of commemorations, which will pack the president’s schedule until the first frosts of winter. On April 16, he will pay tribute to the Resistance fighters of the Vercors mountains; on May 8, which marks the end of the Second World War, he is due to commemorate members of the Marseille Resistance, as well as the arrival of the Olympic flame in the southern city. Then he will move on to Normandy, attending ceremonies for the landings of Allied forces on June 5, 6 and 7 − the high point of the commemorations, on the eve of the European elections. On July 7, he is due to attend the traditional tribute to Georges Mandel, a former French interior minister who was persecuted by the Nazis and murdered by collaborationist paramilitaries. On August 15, he will honor the foreign soldiers who landed on the beaches of Provence in the South. On August 25, he is set to celebrate the liberation of Paris and finally, on November 23, he will celebrate the liberation of the eastern city of Strasbourg.

At the beginning of 2025, as has already been announced by the Elysée, Macron will begin “round three” of these commemorations, that of “France’s recognition by the concert of nations.” These displays of remembrance prompted MoDem (center) MP Jean-Louis Bourlanges, to say that the president’s “commemorative vein is undoubtedly the richest.”

An avalanche of tributes

Even before his election, Macron was determined to make “reconciliation” through history a hallmark of his time in office. “The past still burns in our time, and the present is thick with what has been,” said Macron on May 1, 2016, in front of the cathedral of the central French city of Orléans, as he paid tribute to Joan of Arc. Seven years on, historian Jean Garrigues said that he believes the president particularly enjoys these historical events, or, at the very least, has “a personal taste” for these grandiose ceremonies.

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