In his annual New Year address, French President Emmanuel Macron said that 2024 will be a year of French pride and hope, marked by the Summer Olympic games in Paris and the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral after it was destroyed by a fire in 2019.
In a 13-minute televised address broadcast ahead of New Year’s celebrations, Macron called for 2024 to be a “year of determination, choices, recovery, pride”.
Speaking from the gardens of the Elysee presidential palace, with the flags of Olympic nations in the background, the President sought to bring positive notes to a year marked by wars and crises abroad and protests over an unpopular pension reform and violence following the police killing of a teenager at a traffic stop.
"It’s once in a century that one hosts Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it’s once a millennium that one rebuilds a cathedral," he said.
Expressing support for Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Macron praised the government’s actions of the past year.
Internationally, he evoked “increasing geopolitical tension” brought by the war in Ukraine and the spectre of terrorism, making reference to the 41 French people who have died in the Middle east since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, and Israel retaliated with a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza strip.
The speech was marked by the idea of “rearming”, with the President referring to France’s “economic rearmament” through various reforms intended for 2024.
He also spoke an “industrial, technological and scientific rearmament”, calling for 2024 to be “a year of determination, efficiency and results”.
(with AFP)
