A white rose in front of the portrait of the late queen: mandatory black suit, Emmanuel Macron bowed for a moment in memory of Elizabeth II, Friday, September 9, in the premises of the United Kingdom Embassy, in Paris . The Head of State had come to sign, a stone’s throw from the Elysée, the register of condolences opened in the morning. On Twitter, the night before, he had greeted a “friend of France, a queen of hearts who forever marked her country and her century”.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has embodied the continuity and unity of the British nation for over 70 years.… https://t.co/aDA19peNr9
While tributes rain down in all the capitals of the planet, they take on 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, enthroned by the queen on September 6, two days before her death, takes over from Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron’s pet peeve. By multiplying the gestures of friendship towards the royal family and the British people, the French authorities seem anxious to renew the thread of relations with London, if not to be reconciled with the government of His Majesty.
” Move on “
“The fact that Republican France is the country in Europe which pays the most emphatic tribute to the Queen is the subject of many comments in the United Kingdom”, observes Georgina Wright, director of the Europe program at the Institut Montaigne. For this Briton, “we feel for the first time a desire on the part of France to move on to something else in order to restore some form of agreement with London”.
“The queen of sixteen kingdoms loved France, which returned it well”, underlined Mr. Macron in a first press release Thursday evening, while his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, ambassador in London before his appointment, followed in his footsteps on TF1, then France 2: “France is in mourning and sadness. » At the Elysée, the flags were lowered on Friday. They will be again on the day of the funeral.
In the wake of his visit to the Embassy, the President even spoke in English to British citizens, in a short video message. “For you, she was your queen. For us, she was the queen, launched the Head of State in a chiselled formula, hailed a little later on France Info by the former Minister for European Affairs of Tony Blair, Denis MacShane. “With her, France and the United Kingdom shared not only a ‘cordial understanding’, but a loyal, sincere and warm partnership”, Mr. Macron observed.
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