As every July 14, France celebrated Bastille Day, this time the celebration was modest due to the measures of social distancing by COVID19, without an audience and the usual parades of tanks and troops, President Emanuel Macron offered a ceremony in Place de la Concordia, in which honored to the military and medical staff who are on the front lines fighting the Coronavirus.
The national holiday that takes place every year on the Champs Elysées, in commemoration of the French Revolution (1789), featured a parade of 2,000 soldiers and 2,500 guests, made up of health personnel, relatives of deceased health personnel, teachers, cashiers, funeral agents, police, gendarmes, firefighters, and employees of mask factories. «I wish, with all the French, with all the Armies themselves, to pay a vibrant tribute to health workers and to those who, in all sectors, have allowed public, social and economic life to continue» announced the president from the Place de la Concorde, place that was the scene for the first time.
Fireworks but not public, the French government has cautiously decided, since it has canceled the traditional show at the Eiffel Tower, to move it to the park next door, which will remain closed, only to be broadcast on television.
After the ceremony, the president admitted to being in favor of the mandatory use of masks in closed public places, and he also reflected on the outbreaks of COVID-19 that could shake France again. The French president also promised a massive recovery plan of at least 100,000 million euros, to revive the levels, educational, cultural, ecological and local.
PROTESTS IN THE MIDDLE OF FRANCE’S NATIONAL DAY
Massive protests have been registered in different parts of Paris, as a rejection of Emanuel Macron’s administration in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. As Macron seeks to honor medical staff on Bastille Day, medical worker unions took to the streets of the French capital to denounce the lack of equipment and personnel in hospitals.
The demonstrations which were also made up of people who blame the president for benefiting the upper classes have provoked clashes between the police and the citizens, who were dispersed with tear gas since Monday night vandalism has been seen on the part of from the city.
