Emmanuel Macron: "The republic does not recognize any separatist adventure"

 Emmanuel Macron: "The republic does not recognize any separatist adventure"

During a speech at the Pantheon to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the republic on Friday, the head of state announced that a bill to fight separatism would be introduced "starting this fall."

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the Pantheon celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Republic, Friday 4 September. Julian De Rosa / Agence France-Presse

“The moment that I measure is majestic and touching.” Friday, September 4, in the Pantheon, Emmanuel Macron presided over the citizenship ceremony: “On the same day that the Republic celebrates its birthday. It was September 4, 1870,” as the head of state noted in the preamble of his speech, History of the proclamation of the Third Republic by Leon Gambetta after the defeat of Napoleon III at Sedan.

Tribute to great personalities

The President of the Republic took the opportunity to pay tribute to “many French personalities not by heritage but by the battles that took place”: in the words of Leon Gambetta, but also Marie Curie, who “chose to serve France in the trenches like a simple nurse”; Josephine Baker, who "loved her adopted homeland so much that she risked her life for it, and entered the resistance"; Or Felix Eboue, "a descendant of slaves, [who] responded to General de Gaulle's appeal on 18 June."

For Emmanuel Macron, these personalities are “many examples (...) of life in the Republic. So many fates including Matthew, Nora, Patricia, Catherine, Rana (whose head of state is presiding over the naturalization ceremony this Friday) you are the inheritors today." The head of state called on them to “dress completely in the clothes of French citizens.” For the president of the republic, becoming French means “accepting to be more than one individual pursuing his own interests; a citizen who contributes to the common good shows responsibility towards his countrymen.”

The President of the Republic also announced that a national tribute would be paid in Invalides Square to lawyer and feminist personality Giselle Halimi, who passed away on July 28. "From dear Tunisia to our National Assembly, from courtrooms to bicycles, and from pleadings to statements, the baby girl, Zeza El-Tayeb, demanded the liberation of peoples and made giant leaps for the cause of women," he says.

Macron's word in full: "The republic is the will, and the republic is the transmission. It was never completed, to be always restored."

Equality as a "priority of the five-year term"

"To be French is first of all to love freedom passionately," added Emmanuel Macron. "Freedom, in our Republic, is a block", he said, referring to the freedom to participate in the choice of its leaders, "and therefore the right to vote", freedom of conscience and secularism, "which guarantees the freedom to believe or not to believe ”but which is“ not separable from a freedom of expression going as far as the right to blasphemy ”.