PARIS — It was a day to remember the bloodshed that ultimately made European solidarity a political imperative, a matter of survival.
Scores of presidents, prime ministers and other dignitaries from around the world gathered under the Arc de Triomphe in a somber and rain-drenched ceremony Sunday to mark the centennial of the Armistice that ended World War I.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood side-by-side: the leaders of the two powers that once brought horrific bloodshed to the European Continent and now the closest of allies.
Under a glass pavilion that shielded them from a driving rain, they recalled the remarkable moment — 11 a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 — when Marshall Ferdinand Foch, supreme commander of the Allied Forces, signed the armistice with Matthias Erzberger of Germany, in a railroad wagon in Compiègne. That moment yielded an ever-too-brief, two-decade ceasefire until the world was once again plunged into global warfare.
The Commemoration, at the base of the imposing triumphal arch, where an unknown soldier is entombed representing so many who died anonymously in combat or whose remains were never found, offered a stark reminder that the political disagreements of today are mere bickering compared to the staggering toll of more than 15 million dead, and millions more wounded, or left without loved ones.
The ceremony provided an extraordinary moment for statesmanship by Macron.
“Europe nearly committed suicide,” Macron declared in a speech, standing before the array of leaders that included Presidents Donald Trump of the United States and Vladimir Putin of Russia, the leaders of two Allied powers, who today are rivals if not enemies. “1918 that was 100 years ago — it seems very far away. But it was only yesterday.”
The ceremony provided an extraordinary moment for statesmanship by Macron, the 40-year old president who upended the French political establishment by winning election as an independent in 2017, but who has struggled in recent months with precipitously plummeting poll numbers that show him enjoying the confidence of barely one-quarter of his country.
Although Trump was in attendance in Paris in a show of solidarity, on a profound level, Macron’s speech could be taken as a rebuke of the combustible American president who in the recent midterm congressional election campaign declared himself a proud “nationalist.”
“This vision of France as a generous nation, of France as a project, of France as the bearer of universal values was displayed during these dark hours, as the very opposite of a selfish nation that only looks after its own interest,” Macron said. “Patriotism is the opposite of nationalism,” he added.
“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.”
Macron’s office chose that line to tweet out from his official account.
Macron prepares to deliver a speech | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
“The lessons we draw from the great war cannot be rancor and resentment among other nations and it cannot be allowing the past to be forgotten,” Macron said, adding that the end of World War 1 began to lay foundations for the system of multilateral, international cooperation that prevails today.
“Today, here, people’s of the whole world on this sacred esplanade, the tomb of our unknown solider, this anonymous soldier who symbolizes all those who die for their homeland, see so many of your leaders come together,” Macron said. “Each one of them brings with them so many combatants and martyrs of their own nation. Each one of them represents the face of the hope of which an entire young generation agreed to die.”
The leaders, he said, represent “the face of a world that is once again peaceful, where friendship between peoples prevails over wars, a world where the words of men must speak louder than arms … where bodies and fora exist allowing former enemies to come to dialogue as a pledge of harmony that at last is possible to achieve.”
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May did not attend the commemoration, but was in Belgium and France for memorial events on Friday, as well as for a lunch with Macron.
He then explained why Merkel, more than any of the dozens of other leaders, was by his side on this commemorative weekend, including at a visit to Compiègne on Saturday, where they laid a wreath together.
Unis. pic.twitter.com/a3we7hpKDJ
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) November 10, 2018
“On our Continent,” Macron said in speech at the Arc de Triomphe, “this is represented by the ties of friendship between Germany and France, and the desire to build a bedrock of common goals. This hope is called the European Union, a union that has freed us of our civil wars.”
Others in attendance on a wet, gray day, were European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. From the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, leaders headed to a luncheon reception at the Élysée Palace.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Morocco’s Prince Moulay Hassan and King Mohammed VI, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and his wife Lynne Cosgrove, Tchad’s President Idriss Deby and his wife Hinda Deby Itno and Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Soaring rhetoric, and profound remembrances aside, it was impossible to escape the feuds, rivalries, grudges and other complaints of the modern political age. Trump and Putin arrived separately from other world leaders, in their own motorcades, and watching the ceremonies on television it seemed that the leaders of the old Cold War rivals — each known for their own special type of arrogance — had kept everyone else waiting.
In that little arm-wrestle of protocol, Putin seemed to come out the winner. Though he was already on site, Trump joined the group first, and it was the Russian president who appeared last of all — as if everyone else was waiting for him.
Asked why Trump arrived later than other leaders, a White House spokesperson said: “Due to security protocols the President arrived separately.”
Trump, who came under sharp criticism for skipping a visit to an American war cemetery on Saturday — the White House said the rainy weather prevented his helicopter from taking off — was the target of a protest by a topless woman from the activist group Femen, who ran onto the Avenue des Champs-Élysées as the presidential motorcade rolled by, only to be intercepted by police. A separate protest by the group on Saturday featured topless women holding signs that said, “Welcome War Criminals.”
Later on Sunday afternoon, President Trump is slated to deliver remarks at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial just outside of Paris, where the remains of 1,541 American World War I veterans are buried. Suresnes is one of eight American cemeteries throughout Europe.
Nancy Cook contributed reporting.