Joly wants to end Bastille Day military parade

Green presidential candidate Eva Joly said she would like to replace the traditional military parade held every July 14 in Paris with a “citizens’ parade.” Her remarks unleashed a storm of criticism, especially on the right.

Published: 15 July 2011 11:43 CEST

Joly wants to end Bastille Day military parade

Marie-Lan Nguyen

“I have a dream of replacing this parade with a citizens’ parade where we would see school children, college students and seniors filing past, happy to be together and celebrating the values that bind us,” Joly said on Thursday while a column of tanks and other armoured vehicles rolled past Bastille Square.

The Norwegian-born former magistrate who earned a reputation in the 1990s as a tough investigator during the Elf scandal made her remarks in front of a gathering of union groups, politicians and former resistance fighters.

“These are not the values we share. I think the time has come to cancel these July 14 military parades because they belong to another time,“ she added, lambasting what she called “a warlike France.“

The criticism of her remarks was fast and furious. Parliamentarian Jacques Myard, a member of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), called the idea of a citizens’ parade ridiculous.

“She forgets that a country is also made up of its army,” he told Europe 1. “They should have the right to be recognized through a parade, which is an important symbol of the link between the people and the armed forces.”

Marc Laffineur, state secretary for veterans’ affairs, said he was “shocked” by Joly’s suggestion, adding that her idea was especially unfortunate just after six French soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan.

“The parade on July 14^th pays homage to all the effort and the sacrifices made by our soldiers,” he said.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen of the National Front called Joly’s recommendations “absolutely appalling,“ casting doubt on her “Frenchness“ and the legitimacy of her run for the presidency.

“I don’t think it’s legitimate to run for the presidency of the Republic when one has become French rather belatedly and when, just a few months ago, one was providing advice to the Norwegian government.“

Joly was born Gro Eva Farseth in Oslo in 1943 and came to the France at the age of 20 as an au pair. She married the son of the family that employed her and later became an investigating judge.

Even those on the left side of the political spectrum kept their distance from Joly’s remarks. Martine Aubry and Ségolène Royal, both running in the socialist party primaries, said the military parade tradition should be upheld.

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“I don’t believe in the model… which would involve finding third countries on the African continent or elsewhere where we’d send people who arrive on our soil illegally, who don’t come from these countries,” Macron said.

“We’re creating a geopolitics of cynicism which betrays our values and will build new dependencies, and which will prove completely ineffective,” he added in a wide-ranging speech on the future of the European Union at Paris’ Sorbonne University.

British MPs on Tuesday passed a law providing for undocumented asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed and where they would stay if the claims succeed.

The law is a flagship policy for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, which badly lags the opposition Labour party in the polls with an election expected within months.

Britain pays Paris to support policing of France’s northern coast, aimed at preventing migrants from setting off for perilous crossings in small boats.

Five people, including one child, were killed in an attempted crossing Tuesday, bringing the toll on the route so far this year to 15 – already higher than the 12 deaths in 2023.

But Macron had warm words for London when he praised the two NATO allies’ bilateral military cooperation, which endured through the contentious years of Britain’s departure from the EU.

“The British are deep natural allies (for France) and the treaties that bind us together… lay a solid foundation,” he said.

“We have to follow them up and strengthen them, because Brexit has not affected this relationship,” Macron added.

The president also said France should seek similar “partnerships” with fellow EU members.