“I am happy and proud to be among you” : the formulas are similar, but the glorious defeat of the French against the Argentines in the final of the Football World Cup seems far away. After hastening to console the Blues with a lot of words, the day before in Doha, Qatar, Emmanuel Macron visited, Monday, December 19, the crew of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. The flagship of the French fleet is a three-hour flight from the Qatari capital, in the Red Sea, off Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt).
The opportunity for the president to reconnect with what the Elysée calls “Christmas in the Armed Forces”. The tradition had been interrupted for two years by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it becomes unavoidable again, a few days before the holidays, when the return of war in Europe, since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, places the troops on the alert. Starting with those of Charles de Gaulle.
After the football fields, Emmanuel Macron therefore surveyed the passageways of the imposing nuclear-powered building. He even offered himself a sequence worthy of Tom Cruise in Top Gunaccording to his entourage, to reach, on the gigantic elevator of the flight deck, the hangar where the planes – twenty Rafales and two Hawkeye surveillance devices – are maintained and sheltered. “You are extraordinary French women and men”greeted Emmanuel Macron, in a quick speech to the crew members, emphasizing the “special relationship to existence” forces gathered before him.
The approximately 1,800 sailors, including some sixty pilots, who make up the crew are preparing to spend the holidays at sea or on a stopover, far from their families. “On a mission, you do not distinguish between the personal and the professional”, observed the Head of State, vouching, without any particular announcement, for the preservation of purchasing power and military pensions, here as elsewhere. He said he wanted to rely on these men and women to “strengthen the moral force of the nation” before singing a Marseillaise.
“Crowd bath”
The day before, the Head of State had highlighted the qualities of the players of the France team to try to resemble the country behind him, at a time when the unions promise a great battle against the disputed pension reform. . “You have to know how to separate things”however did he slip during a quick “crowd bath” with the troops, as if to ward off any prolonged disappointment after the disillusion suffered by French footballers. Alongside the “Pasha” of Charles de GaulleCaptain Sébastien Martinot, and the Commander of the Carrier Strike Group, Admiral Christophe Cluzel, Mr. Macron strives above all, in the wake of the flagship of the French fleet, to highlight France’s commitment to the alongside its allies, regardless of the terrain where it is present.
You have 49.55% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.