Macron denounces nationalism at war commemoration
French president Emmanuel Macron has used a ceremony commemorating Australia’s wartime co-operation with France to highlight a global worldview as a counter to nationalism.
A week after criticising US president Donald Trump’s “America first” policies on a trip to Washington, and hours after a May Day gathering of European anti-immigration populist leaders in his home country, Mr Macron thanked Australia for sending “a huge part of its population” to fight in France in both World Wars.
Speaking alongside prime minister Malcolm Turnbull at a wreath-laying ceremony at Sydney’s main war memorial,mrmacronsaidremembering the sacrifice of Australian soldiers in France was “about understanding the foundations on which a nation is built”.
“The Australian nation was forged on the Western Front by sending a huge part of its population at that time to the other side of the world,” Mr Macron said.
“That is a powerful message at a time when nationalism is looming, entrenched behind its borders and its hostility to the rest of the world.”
Mr Macron’s impassioned speech came after a rally in Nice on Tuesday headed by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who joined other anti-immigration counterparts from around Europe in a gathering aimed at energising their campaigns for next year’s European Parliament elections.
Populist leaders Harald Vilimsky, of Austria’s Freedom Party, and Czech nationalist Tomio Okamura also appeared as part of a joint effort to trumpet the gains made by Europe’s far-right parties, and to rail against their common foe – the European Union.
On his state visit to the US last week, Mr Macron drew sharp contrasts with Mr Trump’s worldview, laying out a firm vision of global leadership that rejects “the illusion of nationalism”.
On a two-day visit to Australia, only the second in history by a French president, Mr Macron noted the bond between the two countries had been shown again with them working to fight terrorism in Syria, and to counter the financing of terrorism.
“It is about building, over the next 50 years, an outstanding strategic partnership that enables us to defend together our ideal of love, freedom and sovereignty,” he said, adding the lessons of the two countries’ wartime forebears would not be forgotten.
“Learning their lessons is about refusing to stand by powerless when … sorrow is inflicted on men, women and children in Syria with chemical weapons that the international community believed it had banished for all time after the Great War.”