6 . Meeting of François Mitterrand in Caen during the 1981 presidential campaign . Picture by Jacques PAILLETTE , CC BY-SA 3.0 < https :// creativecommons . org / licenses / by-sa / 3.0 >, via Wikimedia Commons
1994 , however , he was indignant at having been pushed aside by French Minister of Veterans Affairs Louis Mexandeau . “ Here was a perfect opportunity to celebrate the reconciliation of the different belligerents before the world , giving the ceremonies the value of bestowing official forgiveness by the Allied nations ”. At last , in 2004 , Chancellor Gerhard Schröder came to Normandy and marked a turning point by explaining : “ the victory of the Allies is not a victory over Germany but a victory for Germany ”. In the same vein , the Soviets were also included , as Vladimir Putin was invited to the 2014 commemorations .
The message sent during the ceremonies has also evolved . Over time , it has promoted two lines of thought . On the one hand , D-Day was no longer presented as a military operation leading to victory , but as an enterprise of peace , freeing Europe from Nazism and ushering in Franco-German reconciliation . In this spirit , Operation Overlord is also considered the beginning of the construction of Europe , as François Mitterrand said in 1984 : “ The adversaries of yesterday have reconciled and are building the Europe of Freedom together . May they now dare to go beyond themselves to overcome the contradictions of a common victory that has brought us peace ”. In 1994 , he added : “ Reconciled , the adversaries now walk in step ”. This is clearly an act of construction or , if you may , of storytelling . Eisenhower certainly did not think that he was laying the groundwork for the construction of Europe . He sought above all to annihilate the German armies and not to achieve an improbable reconciliation between France and Germany . Yet this vision was accepted . Today , it shapes how we represent the liberation in general and Operation Overlord in particular .
EUROPE INSIGHT
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