France sends ‘strategic signal’ of Europe’s military awakening at Bastille Day parade
Over 6,500 troops and 300 vehicles parade in Paris as Macron hosts European leaders for his final Bastille Day before elections. EU accession talks for four countries also underway.
France celebrates Bastille Day with a massive military parade on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, featuring more than 6,500 troops and 300 vehicles. The event is intended to “send a strategic signal” about France and Europe’s military awakening, according to officials.
The parade includes 500 troops from Coalition of the Willing countries, including Germany, and 25 soldiers from Ukraine. It is President Emmanuel Macron’s tenth and final parade before next year’s presidential election. He hosts a strong guest list of European leaders who stayed overnight after talks on Ukraine, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The guest list reflects the evolution of Macron’s thinking: in 2017 he sought to impress US President Donald Trump, but now he is surrounded by mostly European leaders, sending a clear signal of Europe’s re-emerging power. The Élysée Palace says the parade is “a powerful symbol of Europe that is becoming aware of how dangerous the world is and that it must take its destiny into its own hands.”
During the parade, the French air force aerobatic team Patrouille de France flew over, releasing colored vapors forming the French flag. They were flanked by two Mirage 2000 aircraft piloted by French pilots with Ukrainian pilots in training, followed by an AWACS radar plane.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, four accession conferences are taking place with Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, and Ukraine. EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos called it a “Super Tuesday,” noting that there have not been four accession conferences in one day for more than two decades. Montenegro leads the process with more than half of “clusters” closed.
