France starts a year of remembrance for war hero Charles de Gaulle
French President Emmanuel Macron launched a year of remembrance for former president and resistance hero Charles de Gaulle with a speech at a memorial in the north-eastern village of La Ville-aux-Bois-les-Dizy on Sunday.
Macron recalled the French spirit of resistance as “unrelentingly free and proud” and said de Gaulle had shown that France was strong when the nation stood together and focused on its destiny.
The event was held near Montcornet where a tank battle took place during World War II led by then colonel de Gaulle in May 1940. The French tried to stop a German offensive, but did not succeed and the French army was beaten by Nazi forces a few weeks later, a defeat considered the worst in French history. German troops entered Paris on June 14, 1940.
Macron said the defeat at the Battle of Montcornet bore in it the “seeds of a coming victory.”
The event was held at the start of the de Gaulle year of remembrance, which is also to include the 50th anniversary of the leader’s death and his 130th birthday.
The events of June 18, 1940, are also to be marked, the day that de Gaulle flew to London and told the BBC that while France had lost a battle, it had not lost the war.
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That day he called on the French to continue fighting on the side of the allies, a call that few French people heard initially.
De Gaulle went on to establish the Fifth Republic, and was president of France from 1959 to 1969. (dpa)
