Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 President Emmanuel Macron is attending ceremonies in Normandy this Tuesday, marking the 79th
00:05 anniversary of D-Day. It was the largest naval, air and land operation in military history.
00:12 Let's cross now to Luke Brown, who's in Arromanches. Just take us through what's happening today,
00:21 Luke.
00:22 Yes, so we're expecting Emmanuel Macron to begin speaking, addressing the crowd here
00:28 in Arromanches at some point in the coming minutes. He's running about 30 minutes late
00:32 as things stand. The specific point that he's come here to do has to be to inaugurate the
00:38 new museum for the D-Day memory here in Arromanches. This, of course, this small town is closest
00:45 to Gold Beach, so all around me are vestiges of the D-Day landings. For example, the artificial
00:52 port of the floating harbour that was built in a very short amount of time is still present
00:58 and still on the horizon here around Arromanches. So inaugurating this museum, this new museum,
01:04 is important. It's important for the locals from an economic perspective, for example.
01:08 Many of the people I'm speaking to here today indicate that throughout the year they're
01:14 not exactly overwhelmed, but a great quantity of tourists come from most notably, of course,
01:19 the US, the UK and Canada, but also further afield here in Europe too, tourists often
01:23 coming to visit the D-Day memorial sites. For Emmanuel Macron himself, there is a political
01:28 aspect to the visit. Earlier in the morning he spoke with this final surviving French
01:34 veteran of the D-Day landings. That's in a bid, to a certain extent, to ensure that there
01:38 is a French memory and a French participation for those landings. But he's also accompanied
01:44 by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, and in a way it's a way of distracting attention
01:50 given those ongoing protests in Paris and around the country about the raising of the
01:54 retirement age. It's what they call a political postcard from Emmanuel Macron, sending a little
02:00 image of himself around the country to ensure voters don't forget that he is still in charge.
02:06 And next year, Luke, is going to be the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Do we have any idea
02:13 at this stage as to what exactly is being planned?
02:19 One of the reasons that Emmanuel Macron has made the trip to Normandy this year, which
02:23 is, as you mentioned, the 79th anniversary, in those years that aren't either tens or
02:28 fives, it's not the tradition for the French President to preside over proceedings. What
02:33 he will be doing today, one of his tasks today, is to give a starting gun, if you will, for
02:41 the preparations, the planning operations for the 80th anniversary. Of course, it is
02:45 hugely symbolic here in France. It's going to be a hugely international effort with a
02:49 lot of diplomatic work necessary to ensure that the French, the Canadian, the British,
02:55 the German, the US participants all contribute. But it is also, of course, a hugely complex
03:03 effort on that level. It is also important symbolically for the individuals involved.
03:08 We were speaking earlier at the American cemetery about 20 minutes from here with some of the
03:15 associations that encourage and assist American veterans to make the journey across the Atlantic.
03:22 It is increasingly difficult and rare for them to make that journey. So, of course,
03:27 providing the opportunity for the 80th anniversary will be extremely important. But beyond the
03:32 veterans themselves, it is a key moment in the coming 12 months in those preparations
03:38 to ensure that there is an ability to transmit the need, what occurred 79 years ago here
03:44 in Normandy, why it was necessary. A lot of the people that I was speaking to, the French
03:48 tourists, they were accompanied, for example, by their children. For them, it was an important
03:52 opportunity to transmit the sacrifice made by those American and international servicemen
03:59 and transmit that to the future generations so they know what was necessary here.
04:03 Luke Brown, thank you for that.