If tributes are raining all over the world, Emmanuel Macron multiplies the declarations and gestures of friendship towards the United Kingdom.
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A white rose in front of the portrait of the deceased queen: black suit of rigor, Emmanuel Macron lost for a moment in memory of Elizabeth II, Friday September 9, in the premises of the Embassy of the United Kingdom , in Paris. The Head of State had come to sign, a stone’s throw from the Elysée Palace, the condolence register opened in the morning. On Twitter, from the previous evening, he had praised a “friend of France, a queen of heart who forever marked her country and his century”.
His Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the continuity and unity of the British nation for more than 70 years.… https://t.co/ada19Penr9
– Emmanuelmacron (@emmanuel Macron)
If tributes are raining in all the capitals on the planet, they take a particular relief in Paris, where they contrast with the recurring tensions that have appeared in recent years in the context of Brexit. And this when a new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, inducted by the Queen on September 6, two days before her death, took over from Boris Johnson, bane of Emmanuel Macron. By multiplying the gestures of friendship towards the royal family and the British people, the French authorities seem concerned with reconnecting the thread of relations with London, failing to be reconciled with the government of His Majesty.
“Getting to something else”
“The fact that republican France is the European country which pays the most supported tribute to the queen is the subject of numerous comments in the United Kingdom,” observes Georgina Wright, director of the Europe program ‘Montaigne Institute. For this Briton, “we feel for the first time a will of France to move on to restore a form of understanding with London”.
“The queen with sixteen kingdoms loved France, which made it good,” said Macron in a first press release Thursday evening, while her Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, Ambassador in London before her appointment, He followed suit on TF1, then France 2: “France is in mourning and sadness.” At the Elysée, the flags were put at half mast on Friday. They will be again on the day of the funeral.
In the wake of his visit to the embassy, the president even addressed English to British citizens, in a short video message . “For you, it was your queen. For us, it was the queen,” said the head of state in a chopped formula, praised a little later on France Info by the former European Minister of Tony Blair, Denis Macshane. “With it, France and the United Kingdom not only shared a” cordial understanding “, but a loyal, sincere and warm partnership”, observed Mr. Macron.
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