French President Emmanuel Macron achieved a symbolic victory from the jaws of political defeat in a grand reopening ceremony that blended the political and the sacred.
advertisementFrench President Emmanuel Macron used the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral as an opportunity to mediate a meeting between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, marking an impressive return to the world stage that has put other European leaders to shame.
The ceremony comes at the end of a difficult week for the French president after the collapse of his government left the country rudderless.
Two days before the event, Macron pledged to serve out the remaining 30 months of his presidency despite calls for his resignation.
On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the brokering of a trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur countries. France and Macron were personally strongly opposed to the deal, and the timing of the announcement seemed to highlight that France had lost its lead in the EU.
The weather was so bad that the concert to be held on the promenade outside the cathedral was pre-recorded due to strong winds.
However, President Macron invited President Trump and President Zelenskyy to a trilateral meeting at the Elysee in the afternoon before the main ceremony and held an event in return for cultural diplomacy.
In a photo showing President Trump and President Macron hugging and shaking hands several times on the steps of the French Presidential Palace, President Trump received the full Medal of Honor even though he had not yet taken office.
The meeting may have been useful to Zelenskyy, given Trump’s claims that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours and concerns in Kiev about potential concessions this would make to Russia. He later described the meeting as “good and productive” and thanked Trump for his “firm resolve.”
It also gave Macron a first-mover advantage for a second Trump presidency. This trip was President Trump’s first overseas trip since winning the presidential election last month. Elon Musk, Trump’s choice for the newly created Department of Government Effectiveness, was also invited to the event.
About 50 other world leaders attended, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, but most countries were represented by ceremonial rather than political leaders.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did not attend, but German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier did. Von der Leyen was returning from Mercosur negotiations in Montevideo, but EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola was also present.
This focused diplomatic attention on Macron and Trump, who sat between the French president and his wife in the front row of the cathedral.
The Assad regime in Syria was collapsing while the Elysee talks and events were taking place.
“I think the world is going a little crazy right now, and we’re going to talk about it,” Trump previously told reporters as he prepared to meet with Macron. As the West’s main interlocutor.
Macron drew on the tradition of using Notre Dame Cathedral for ceremonies that blend political power and religion. The French president described the cathedral where Napoleon was crowned emperor as a “metaphor for the life of the nation.”
advertisementThe task of forming a new government and overcoming France’s economic difficulties remains thorny and intractable, but the picture Macron presented at Notre Dame will endure.
