Since the 1980s, France has used D-Day commemorations to reaffirm unity with its allies. This year’s 80th celebration comes amid a complex geopolitical situation.
In the early hours of 6 June 1944, more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied nations’ troops landed on five beaches along the Normandy coastline, launching a massive invasion that was the first step towards the liberation of France and western Europe from Nazi occupation.
This Thursday, dozens of heads of state will attend the official commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the invasion, known as D-Day.
But Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and the upcoming European elections, where the far-right is expected to gain significant ground in France, belie President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to assert French unity in the face of adversity.
Toutes les générations réunies en Normandie pour honorer nos héros. Fier de vous rencontrer. pic.twitter.com/znMTFR26zA
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 5, 2024
Russia not invited
Macron welcomes US President Joe Biden to Omaha Beach, along with King Charles III of Britain, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a show of unity of western powers.
There is one notable absence – Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In previous years, Russia was invited to the commemorations to acknowledge the Soviet Union’s key role in fighting the Nazis.
However, because of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was not invited this year's events.
The French presidency has insisted that the commemoration is not political, but memorials cannot avoid politics, as the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Normandy attests.
Politics of commemoration
Before 1984, D-day commemorations were military affairs, but during the Cold War then President François Mitterand invited foreign heads of state, and turned it into a political event.
As president, Macron is fully invested in commemorations, marking many events of the Second World War since last year when he honoured the head of the resistance, Jean Moulin.
During these ceremonies, Macron has spoken of French people’s ability to come together in difficult times.
He pushed the same ideas of unity during commemorations of the end of the First World War, in 2018 – a symbolic message for a contemporary population divided – with a government unable to find a political majority in parliament.
Unity in the face of adversity
Resistance is a strong theme in France's World War II commemorations, as it brings people together, though Macron has also evoked French collaboration with the German occupation.
"Let us also remember these French people, their choices and errors," he said mid-May at a ceremony honouring Resistance fighters on the Vercors plateau in the Alps.
"It was not just a time when French people did not love each other. It was also a time when some French people did not love France."
The three-day D-Day commemorations will be followed by a ceremony to mark the massacre in Oradour-sur-Glane, on Monday.
In August, Macron will preside over the commemoration of the Allied invasion of Provence on 15 August 1944, and the liberation of Paris four days later.
