Disunity:
French police stand in front of fences and a fire during clashes with protesters linked to the Yellow Vests movement during the annual Bastille Day celebrations on Sunday on the ChampsElysees in Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday sought to showcase European military co-operation in France’s Bastille Day parade at a time of growing tension between Europe and the US.
Key EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, joined Macron in Paris to watch the parade down the Champs-Elysees that commemorates the July 14 1789 storming of the Bastille prison during the French revolution.
Some 4,300 members of the armed forces, including regiments from other European armies, marched down the avenue’s famed cobblestones in a tradition that dates back to the aftermath of World War I.
Army dogs festooned with medals, members of France’s celebrated Foreign Legion and mounted cavalry in glittering uniforms brandishing ceremonial sabres all paraded in front of the high-ranking guests.
French inventor and entrepreneur Franky Zapata showed off his futuristic flyboard, soaring above the assembled leaders.
“The army is transforming: it is modernising for our soldiers, our sovereignty and our independence,” Macron told France 2 television in brief remarks.
Standing in an open-top command car alongside chief of staff Gen Francois Lecointre, Macron was met with some jeers and whistles from supporters of the “yellow vest” movement, who have staged weekly protests against the government since last autumn.
Two prominent members of the movement, Jerome Rodrigues and Maxime Nicolle, were detained by the police, sources said.
Closer European defence cooperation has been one of Macron’s key foreign policy aims and the president shows no sign of wavering despite growing political turbulence in Germany and Britain’s looming exit from the EU.
At the 2017 parade, Macron’s guest of honour was the newly inaugurated President Donald Trump as the young French leader sought to take the initiative in forming a bond with his US counterpart.
‘THINLY VEILED THREATS’
But since then ties between Trump and Macron have soured over the US pullout from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal, as well as France’s new law for a tax on digital giants, mostly US companies.
“President Trump has been an excellent ambassador for a Europe of defence,” armed forces minister Florence Parly told the Parisien newspaper on Sunday, pointing to “thinly veiled threats he made towards Europe or on the durability of American commitment”.
Macron, who pushed the idea of the European intervention initiative to undertake missions outside of existing structures like Nato, insisted on the importance of European defence co-operation.
“Never since the end of World War 2 has Europe been so important,” Macron, who after coming to power in 2017 controversially dispensed with the president’s traditional July 14 television interview, said in a written statement.
Forces from all nine countries taking part alongside France in the initiative — including Britain and Germany — were represented at the parade.
The German chancellor told reporters after the event that the parade was a “great gesture for a European defence policy” and Germany was honoured to have taken part.
Merkel, who is battling to keep her grand coalition together at home, was again under scrutiny after she suffered three episodes of shaking at official events in recent weeks. But she appeared to suffer no problems and stepped out with Macron to greet wounded veterans.
In a sign of France’s ambition to be a leading modern military power under Macron, the president on Saturday announced the creation of a national space force command that will eventually be part of the air force.
A German A400M transport plane and a Spanish C130 took part in fly-bys, as well as two British Chinook helicopters. The Chinooks are a major symbol of British-French defence cooperation, with Britain deploying three of the aircraft and 100 personnel for France’s operation in the African Sahel region.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May had been expected to attend, but Britain was instead represented by senior cabinet minister David Lidington, the Elysee said.
Also present were members of the 5,000-strong FrancoGerman Brigade, which was created in 1989 as a symbol of postwar unity between France and Germany, and celebrates its 30th anniversary.
FORCES FROM ALL NINE COUNTRIES TAKING PART ALONGSIDE FRANCE IN THE INITIATIVE WERE REPRESENTED AT THE PARADE