Macron marks 84 years since de Gaulle's call to resist Nazi occupation

French President Emmanuel Macron is on the Ile-de-Sein in western Brittany to commemorate the historic 18 June 1940 radio broadcast from London by General Charles de Gaulle, who made the "call to resistance and refusal of the spirit of defeat".

Macron's commemoration of the iconic broadcast from across the English Channel in 1940 comes in the midst of a legislative election campaign in which the far right is in a strong position.

After a traditional ceremony to rekindle a flame at the Mont-Valérien fort outside Paris, the French president travelled in the afternoon to the Ile de Sein – one of the five Order of the Liberation towns along with Nantes, Grenoble, Paris and Vassieux-en-Vercors – to celebrate "what characterises the French spirit of resistance in the face of defeat".

According to the Élysée palace, for General de Gaulle, there was above all else "the profound desire for France to be free, which must enable us to overcome all fears and all defeats".

'No to the spirit of defeat'

The president already used the expression "no to the spirit of defeat" at a press conference on 13 June, during which he sought to justify his decision to dissolve the National Assembly and announce legislaive elections, which plunged the country into uncertainty.

The youngest was 14 and the oldest 54.

(with AFP)

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