Tributes, a parade, a mass, a demonstration by the Patrouille de France… Paris celebrated in grand style on Sunday August 25th, the 80the anniversary of its liberation from Nazi occupation. President Emmanuel Macron praised the virtues of a France capable of forming a « grande coalition » beyond “the divisions”.
The culmination of five days of celebrations, an official ceremony was held on Sunday afternoon at Place Denfert-Rochereau, a highly symbolic location. On August 25, 1944, most of the 2e armored division (2e DB), commanded by General Leclerc, entered the capital after more than 1,500 days of occupation and a crazy week of strikes, barricades and street fighting led by the Resistance.
“Paris was liberated by all those who shared a certain idea of France. All different because they came from a hundred horizons, carrying a thousand contradictions, but gathered within a great coalition, united by a single credo.”Emmanuel Macron stressed in his speech. “Beyond all divisions, all contradictions, being French means being together. Free, faithful to the great things done, and determined to continue doing them together.”continued the head of state.
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Descendants of fighters present
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the celebration of the liberation of the capital was “more than just a commemoration” : it is about highlighting a “living heritage, made up of salutary people and acts, which must constantly remind us of the price of the fight for freedom”.
Among the some 1,200 people invited were descendants of fighters, foreign officials and political leaders, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, several members of his resigned government and the presidents of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and the Senate, Gérard Larcher.
American actress Jodie Foster and Comédie-Française resident Birane Ba read texts recounting those decisive days of the summer of 1944. The French army choir sang the poignant songs of the partisans and the marshes, but also the joyful refrain from the film “Is Paris burning?”A flight of the Patrouille de France planes over the Parisian sky concluded the ceremony, exactly at the moment when the last chords of the Marseillaise rang out.
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Tribute to the 160 of the Nueve
On Sunday morning, the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, presided over a mass for the 80th anniversary of the liberation at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois church, his “cathedral” while waiting to find Notre-Dame.
On Saturday, a tribute was paid to the 160 men of the Nueve, the 9e company of the Chad Marching Regiment, mostly Spanish Republicans, who were the first to enter Paris on the evening of August 24. The latter played an active role in the liberation of the capital within the “Dronne column”, the vanguard of the 2e DB, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that they were fully celebrated.
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“These men whose talent, courage, strength, energy and inspiration we commemorate here today (…) have marked European history, the history of our freedoms, this is also what this commemoration means”stressed during the ceremony Mme Hidalgo, born in Spain and with dual French-Spanish nationality. The tribute took place in the presence of Bénédicte de Francqueville, the last surviving child of General Leclerc, and Claire Rol-Tanguy, daughter of Colonel Rol-Tanguy, regional commander of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).
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