The American Secretary of Defense compared the arrival of migrants on the Mediterranean coast to the Allied landing in Normandy on Saturday during the American commemoration ceremony.
The American Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke on Saturday of an “invasion” of immigrants while commemorating the Landing of June 1944, while calling on European countries to increase their defense capabilities, a few hours after having declined to participate in the international ceremony.
The head of the Pentagon seemed to refer to a threat that immigration, according to him, represented for “Western civilization”, in an analogy with the landing of allied forces organized 82 years ago.
“Unfortunately, today, different European beaches are being stormed by various dangerous ideologies: on the beaches of Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men are disembarking,” he attacked. “Will European capitals act against this invasion or is it already too late?” launched Pete Hegseth.
“Peace is only guaranteed by force”
“The men buried here fought within a warlike alliance where each partner brought the measure of their industry, their courage and their sacrifice,” declared Mr. Hegseth in Colleville-sur-Mer (Calvados), in front of the 9,387 white crosses in the cemetery of fallen American soldiers during the Battle of Normandy, on Omaha Beach.
“No empty slogans, no ostentatious summits, no communications,” he quipped, “each” allied nation “bled, took its part” in 1944. “America must show the way, and we will, but our allies must be with us, shoulder to shoulder,” he said. asked Mr. Hegseth, who announced Friday evening his withdrawal from the international ceremony scheduled for Saturday, to devote himself to the American ceremony.
This close friend of President Donald Trump also judged that “peace is only guaranteed by force”, abstaining in his speech, delivered in the presence of his French counterpart Catherine Vautrin, from any explicit mention of the ongoing conflicts in Iran or Ukraine.
The “American people, this great people friend of freedom”
During the international ceremony on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu paid tribute to the “3,000 men barely 20 years old” who died on D-Day, who offered “the breath of their youth, and the sacrifice of their lives”.
Sébastien Lecornu celebrated the “resilience” of the United Kingdom during the conflict and the “American people, this great people friend of freedom”. As in echoing the threats of abandonment by the United States, he called for taking up the “challenge of our generation”, that of “our autonomy, of our capacity to defend ourselves by ourselves”, in order to face the “threats” which “are getting closer, intensifying and multiply.”
In the morning, Sébastien Lecornu took part in the military ceremony of the School of Marine Fusiliers and Marine Commandos in Ouistreham (Calvados), at the landing site of the 177 French Kieffer commandos.
A “day of gratitude” to Allied soldiers
During the international ceremony, the defense attaché at the German embassy in France, Markus Reinhardt, described June 6 as a “day of gratitude” to the allied soldiers “of different languages and origins” who allowed the European continent to regain its freedom.
The brigadier general also welcomed this “cooperation” from which “partnerships” can be born to save a peace which “remains fragile”. The military landing carried out in Normandy on June 6, 1944 is the most important amphibious operation in history.
An armada of 6,939 ships and 132,700 English, Canadian, American, Belgian, Norwegian and even Polish men had stormed 80 km of Normandy beaches. This operation will contribute decisively to the victory over Nazi Germany, held in a stranglehold by the Soviet Union in the east.
