Macron says France is not defined "by race or religion"
France is not defined "by a race or a religion," Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday during a military ceremony commemorating the Battle of Camerone in Aubagne, where the Foreign Legion command is based.
France is a "homeland of will and bravery, which is not defined by blood, nor by race, nor by religion, nor by a fixed identity," declared the President of the Republic. France is defined by "a desire renewed every day to accomplish great things with a handful of our land in hand. A universal dream, an ideal, this solidarity, this loyalty to the homeland," he continued.
The head of state made this speech after receiving representatives of Muslim institutions on Tuesday who denounced the "ambient Islamophobic climate" and asked the President of the Republic for "concrete actions" to protect them , following the murder of a worshipper in a mosque in Gard.
In Aubagne, the President reviewed the troops of the Foreign Legion , the army's fighting force of more than 9,500 men. Nearly 150 nationalities work together in the Foreign Legion, where the legionnaires are commanded by French officers.
The national anthem was played and two Rafale jets flew over the ceremony, which was attended by local officials and several hundred spectators.
Legion Feast Day, the Camerone ceremony commemorates a battle that took place at Camerone on April 30, 1863, in the state of Veracruz, in eastern Mexico, during which 62 French legionnaires resisted 2,000 Mexican soldiers during the French expedition to Mexico.
The president described the battle fought by a "handful of legionaries besieged by 2,000 enemies" who "held a position for eleven hours," hailing it as a "story of insane courage."
Tasked with protecting the passage of a supply convoy from the French troops besieging the nearby town of Puebla, the legionnaires entrenched in a hacienda in the village of Camaron de Tejeda had sworn to fight to the death.
After a day of fighting, the last remaining soldiers refused to surrender and charged the Mexicans with bayonets.
La Croıx
