We know that on the 80th anniversary,
the events themselves sought to pass from living memory from
that that generation that that lived,
experienced and fought on those beaches into the stories that
we tell each Other,
that we remember ourselves. I think that makes it really
important that this is commemoration,
not a celebration as we've heard before as well,
that this becomes something which tells us a lot about
the sacrifices that took place on the beaches at Normandy.
You mentioned already, it's a,
it's a really important site of,
of politics, of presentation. Off framing that memory off,
you know, what states can be,
what nations can rise to and what people want to
see represented of themselves.
And so I think the ceremony,
the British ceremony is really important because what it does
is it highlights that role as part of this larger
allied invasion,
this larger allied landing which started the process of the
liberation of France.
It marks that moment, that kind of firing pistol as
it were,
the starting pistol for this whole liberation from occupied occupation.
By the Germans, and that I think is a really
crucial thing to mark at this stage.
And Andrew, as our Other Andrew here on set was
talking about earlier on,
it reminds us as well that the threat of war
is never far away.
I mean, here on France 34,
of course, we're covering those events in Gaza,
but perhaps more notably here in Europe,
those events in Ukraine as well.
Of course, Emmanuel Macron threatened effects,
the right words to send more troops or at least
more French aid to help the Ukrainians.
And perhaps that's something we should be thinking about as
well as we remember what happened 80 years ago.
Yeah, absolutely. We mentioned, you know,
you heard the kind of roundup of the different ceremonies
in their context back in 1949.
And when General Montgomery spoke on the beaches,
he was criticised in the British Parliament for being sort
of hawkish in the way he talked about it.
That, of course, was the moment in 1949 when the
NATO treaty was actually signed and talking about that,
he spoke at that moment about how he would be,
you know, proud to die in France defending British and
French honour.
Then that moment of, you know,
the the the kind of proximity of war really put
an edge on that.
And I think we can see that again today,
as you mentioned. There is really something quite strong and
powerful about this idea of bringing the Ukrainian President,
Vladimir Zaleski, as you mentioned,
and to be part of this while excluding and the
the Russian aggressors as well.
And I think is is very,
very significant. You've of course got the kind of representatives
from many of the Other nations who are represented during
that period as well,
the Canadians, the Germans and even the Italian President as
well.
And of course, we know there is the upcoming G7
summit in Pulia at the end of the month.
And that kind of thing gives us a sense that
this is about political alliances and military alliances today.
As much as it is about the memory and commemoration
of those brave events of the past.