Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

France trumpets shared European defense

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PARIS – France’s annual Bastille Day celebratio­n became a showcase for European defense cooperatio­n Sunday as other national leaders joined President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to inspect the troops marching in the country’s annual military parade.

Flags of the 10 European countries that are in a joint military pact spearheade­d by Macron last year led contingent­s of French and foreign armed forces from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Elysees avenue.

France has had a Bastille Day parade since 1880, and it’s customary for a foreign leader to be the guest of honor. The guest of honor in 2017, President Donald Trump, was so impressed by the spectacle that he wanted a military parade in Washington for America’s independen­ce day celebratio­n.

In Paris, the focus this year was the European Defense Initiative, a coalition formed last year to prepare for possible military action outside of NATO.

The heads of state of Germany, Portugal, Netherland­s and Finland watched from the ceremonial viewing stand as 4,000 military personnel, 69 military airplanes and 39 helicopter­s passed by or overhead.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the invitation to celebrate France’s national holiday “is a symbol for an intensifie­d European cooperatio­n” and “a big gesture toward European defense policy.”

The biggest crowd-pleaser, though, was the man who rocketed through the air on a flying hoverboard. The inventor, former jet-skiing champion Franky Zapata, held a rifle as he zoomed over the parade route on a Flyboard.

Tensions were high on the streets of Paris following eight months of antiMacron demonstrat­ions by the socalled yellow vest movement that seeks financial help for French workers.

Several hundred yellow vest activists – without their trademark fluorescen­t emergency jackets – gathered on the margins of the parade.

Television images showed police grabbing one of the movement’s leaders, Eric Drouet, as he stood peacefully on the sidelines and escorting him away.

Later in the day, riot police squads and groups of young people scuffled amid security barricades along the parade route. Officers fired tear gas to clear the streets after some people set trash cans on fire.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Zapata CEO Franky Zapata flies a jet-powered hoverboard or “Flyboard” prior to the Bastille Day military parade down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Sunday.
GETTY IMAGES Zapata CEO Franky Zapata flies a jet-powered hoverboard or “Flyboard” prior to the Bastille Day military parade down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on Sunday.

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