PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron held a traditional ceremony on Monday on Paris’ Champs Elysées to mark the day World War II ended in Europe in 1945.
Flanked by Prime Minister Elisabeth Born, President Macron laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe monument. A brass band played Marseillaise.
To limit chaos amid ongoing opposition to President Macron and his controversial pension reforms, police have banned rallies in the French capital’s ceremony area and Lyon.
Officials are careful not to disturb the commemoration by protesting “casseroles” or loudly banging pots and pans. In Lyon, President Macron pays tribute to the French resistance movement and one of its leaders, Jean Moulin. President Macron visits Montluc Prison where Moulin was held and tortured by the Gestapo.
