Emmanuel Macron, in Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var), August 19, 2022, during the commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the village, August 17, 1944. ERIC GAILLARD / AFP
The winter will be hard. A few hours after the conversation with Vladimir Putin, it was a worried Emmanuel Macron who presented himself on the heights of Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var) on August 17, 1944 to celebrate the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the village.
The President of the Republic had already prepared the French for a difficult return to school and winter during his July 14 interview due to the risks of energy shortages and rising prices caused by the war in Ukraine. In Bormes, in his first speech after a few days of rest at Fort Brégançon, he expressed pessimism about the coming days.
Also read: Key points of Emmanuel Macron’s July 14 interview: pension reforms, reduction in energy consumption and this summer’s “sobriety plan”.
“I think of our people who will need the strength of the soul to face the times to come, to withstand uncertainties, sometimes relief and adversity, and to pay the price of our freedom and our values together”. called head of state. “Yes, the spirits of revenge, the blatant violations of the sovereignty of states, the intolerable contempt of peoples, the imperialist will reemerge from the past to impose themselves in the daily life of our Europe, our neighbors, our friends,” he pounded.
Emmanuel Macron also denounced “Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack” in Ukraine, citing his phone calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then with his Russian counterpart, “to try to secure the essential commitments to maintain nuclear weapons security at Ukrainian level.” to get ground”. . In “this war that is thundering at our doors,” the head of state hailed the “heroic resistance” of the Ukrainian people to “terrible attacks by the Russian army and its auxiliaries.”
Climate: Emmanuel Macron seemed almost resigned
Traditionally, this August 17 festival is an opportunity to honor the memory of the tens of thousands of soldiers who landed on the coasts of Provence in 1944 to put an end to the German occupation. It has become a traditional stopping point for the President before the start of the school year. The commemoration originally planned for Wednesday was postponed by two days due to weather warnings. In the last two years, this ritual seems to have been sadly shaped by the current climate events. In the summer of 2021, the nearby Massif des Maures was on fire; This year, Corsica is licking its wounds after deadly storms that killed five.
The head of state seemed almost resigned to what he calls “devastating climate catastrophes”. “They unfortunately threaten to intensify and repeat themselves,” he said. In view of this, the focus is on dealing with the consequences, not prevention – it is all about “rethinking our warning and safety systems and the organization of the forest”.
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