Macron créé le problème du grand soldat Pétain

Traveling on the former battlefields of eastern France, the head of the State of the United States for the Military Defense in English, on the World War on the World, the World War Head.

Memory and politics: the two registers mingle in the long journey of Emmanuel Macron on the ways of the Great War, started Sunday in Strasbourg. Welcoming the resilience of a North-East hard hit by the conflict, the head of state promises, during its stages, an economic revival that his policy is expected to hasten. But on Wednesday, none of these two registers seemed to succeed in the President, whose speech seems to have become a flammable matter.

On the fourth day of his journey, he received more criticism than praise from the locals on the way. It was in Charleville-Mézières that the presidential caravan was staged for a delocalised Council of Ministers. Before, Emmanuel Macron briefly wandered in the city center of the capital of the Ardennes, offering himself to sometimes encouraging exchanges, more often hostile. "I am 57 years old; I never went down the street, but with you I am obliged, "said a maternal assistant grieved by the rise in taxes on gasoline and resolved to join the protest movement of November 17. The rise of the CSG and 80 km / h are at the top of the list of arrests. As usual, the head of state replies. "Our retirees live longer than their parents, and you retired at about the same age as yours," he tells a disgruntled pensioner. The system can not work the same way! "Macron laments, as often there too, that he is put" on the back stuff that has not been done for thirty years. "

Drawing

Visiting the Ayvelles, near Charleville, the future location of the plant Cevital - a water purification site for industrial purposes that should create "dozens of jobs in the short term", according to the Elysee - the President recognized a "need for speed. People need to see projects come out. " Thursday in Maubeuge, it is the most competitive Renault factory of the Hexagon that it will visit. The site, which produces electric vehicles, must benefit from new investments. A timely illustration of this after-oil whose head of state is still struggling to make a political asset.

Would the memorial field prove safer for this ever more unpopular president? As moving as consensual, the commemorations of the last days could make it think. Hope compromised by the cumbersome memory of Philippe Pétain. All French military leaders of 14-18, Petain included, must be the subject of a military tribute to the Invalides Saturday. A ceremony "organized each year by the French army," insisted the head of state, who will not participate, even if the event was "validated by the Elysee", in the words of the Chief of Staff of the Armies, General Lecointre.

For its part, the President will bloom the graves of six marshals. Without Petain, then. But for him, "we can have been a great soldier of the First World War and have led to fatal choices during the second". His remarks against the cameras sparked an ire of opposition: "The President has committed a serious mistake, chokes the leader of the Communist deputies, André Chassaigne. Petain, it does not separate: he is no longer Marshal of France for the history of France and we do not tear the pages of history. "Petain was sentenced to death in 1945 and struck with national indignity. to the point that it can no longer be said marshal, "recalls on his side MP PS Boris Vallaud, which distinguishes the" work of the historian "role of the head of state," which is not to render homage to an enemy of the Republic, a gravedigger "of it. Professor of history, Alexis Corbière (LFI) denounces "the words more than unhappy" of the President, the "absurd subtleties", "" and at the same time "where one gets lost". "What does he want us to embark on? Does he mean that there would be an interesting half-petain? Begin his memory journey by saying that Petain was still a great soldier, it does not pass, "says the elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis.

"Firing Squad"

The majority, like the President of the Assembly, Richard Ferrand, is called to "take into account the complexity of history." "It is difficult to look the past in the face, acknowledged the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, during questions to the government. We think of both the victorious and shot for example. To the glorious ones who then did not live up to the story. It is a difficult exercise, paradoxical but indispensable. "

"Shocked" by the presidential remarks, the CRIR reminded that national indignity was "part of the punishments and degrading which involve the loss of certain rights including the loss of rank in the armed forces". Which should have led to not including Petain in the military tribute.

Macron broke the nail at the end of the day in the Aisne. "You create controversies all by themselves, my children," he told reporters, claiming a complex thought on a field always alive. I do not forgive anything. There were high military facts and a crime. [...] But we must also look at history in the face. "

                                                                Source : Liberation