Time.news – Traditional is back in Paris military parade on the occasion of the French national holiday which recalls the taking of the Bastille prison in the revolution of 1789, after the cancellation in 2020 due to Covid. However, the capacity of the stands was limited to 10,000 people, spaced out and equipped with a health pass and mask, compared to 25,000 in normal times.
Over 5,000 soldiers
To parade on the Champs-Elysées under the eyes of President Emmanuel Macron and spectators, are over 5,000 soldiers, of which 4,300 on foot. The others are on horseback and aboard 221 vehicles, 73 airplanes and 24 helicopters. Last year, for the first time since the end of World War II, the parade was canceled due to the pandemic and replaced by a ceremony on the Place de la Concorde.
The presidential parade
Macron traveled the famous Parisian boulevard between the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe aboard a ‘command car’ alongside the Army Chief of Staff, General Francois Lecointre. “Winning the future”, ‘Conquering the future’, is the theme of the 2021 parade, a reference to the battle against the pandemic and the need to equip the armed forces “for tougher, high-intensity commitments, with the support of high technology”, as explained by the military governor of Paris, general Christophe Abad. The parade was attended by French special forces and representatives of the Italian and six other European nations: Belgium, Estonia, Holland, Czech Republic, Portugal and Sweden.
.