PARIS: France kicks off a week of World War I commemorations from Sunday, with some 80 leaders from around the globe preparing to fly in for a ceremony marking a century since the guns fell silent.
French President Emmanuel Macron is gearing up for a busy week of diplomacy that will see him play host to leaders including US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
He will also be criss-crossing northern France, visiting the battlefields where hundreds of thousands of men lost their lives in the trenches.
Macron will notably use the international spotlight to issue a rallying cry against populism — in the presence of “America First” Trump and other nationalist leaders.
The commemorations will culminate in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on November 11 attended by dozens of leaders including Trump, Putin and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, 100 years to the day since the armistice.
The ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Champs-Elysees avenue will be held under tight security following a string of deadly jihadist attacks in France over the past three years.
Remembrance events begin on Sunday, November 3 with a concert celebrating friendship between former wartime enemies France and Germany in the border city of Strasbourg, attended by Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Macron will then spend the week visiting the Western Front battlefields, from Verdun to the Somme.
On Tuesday, in honor of the “black army” of former colonial troops who fought alongside the French, he and Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will visit Reims, a city defended by the African soldiers.
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May will join Macron on the Somme on Friday, while on Saturday he heads to the village of Rethondes, where the armistice was signed, with Merkel.
War commemorations aside, Macron is set to use his tour of northern France to visit areas hit hard by industrial decline, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen performed strongly in last year’s presidential election.
“After paying homage to those who died for their country it will be back to dealing with social and economic problems,” said Bruno Cautres of political think-tank CEVIPOF.
Macron — who has struggled to shake off an image as a “president of the rich” — will zip through 17 towns, holding Wednesday’s weekly cabinet meeting in the Ardennes, an area which was battered by the war and today suffers high unemployment.
The 40-year-old president, whose approval rating is languishing at a dismal 21 percent according to a YouGov poll released Thursday, has dismissed rumors that he is suffering from burn-out.
He sparked rampant speculation by taking a few days off ahead of the tour, which aides have insisted were to gather his energy before an intense week of diplomacy.
This week is an opportunity for the centrist to “reflect a strong presidential image” both at home and abroad, Cautres said.
Macron is set to use his speeches to hammer home warnings of the dangers of nationalism at a time when populists are on the march around Europe and beyond.
In an interview Thursday, he said Europe risked a return to the 1930s because of the spread of a nationalist “leprosy” across the continent.
“I am struck by similarities between the times we live in and those of between the two world wars,” he told the Ouest-France newspaper.
“In a Europe divided by fears, the return of nationalism, the consequences of economic crisis, one sees almost systematically everything that marked Europe between the end of World War I and the 1929 (economic) crisis.”
Macron is attempting to position himself as a champion of centrist politics and multilateralism in the run-up to European parliamentary elections in May, saying he expects the duel to be one between “progressives” and “nationalists.”
After next Sunday’s ceremony, world leaders are set to attend a three-day peace forum opened by Merkel, an event which France wants to turn into an annual multilateral peace conference.
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World leaders to descend on France for WWI commemorations
World leaders to descend on France for WWI commemorations
- Macron is gearing up for a busy week of diplomacy that will see him play host to leaders including Trump and Putin
- Macron will notably use the international spotlight to issue a rallying cry against populism
Ratcliffe says he is sorry his UK ‘colonized by immigrants’ remark offended some
LONDON: British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe said on Thursday he was sorry he had offended some people by saying the country had been “colonized by immigrants,” after Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined a chorus of criticism over the remarks.
Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s most successful businessmen, responded to the outcry with a statement saying it was important to raise the issue of immigration, but that he regretted his “choice of language” had caused concern.
The founder of chemicals giant INEOS, and owner of nearly a third of Manchester United, had told Sky News that high migration and people living on benefits were damaging the economy.
Finance minister: Comments were “disgusting”
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK has been colonized — it’s costing too much money,” Ratcliffe said in the interview aired on Wednesday.
“The UK has been colonized by immigrants, really, hasn’t it?” he added.
Starmer said the remarks were wrong and would play into the hands of those who wanted to divide the country. Finance minister Rachel Reeves said the comments were “unacceptable” and “disgusting.”
On Thursday, INEOS issued a statement from Ratcliffe in response to “reporting of his comments.”
“I am sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe and caused concern but it is important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth,” he said.
He said he wanted to stress that governments must manage migration alongside investment in skills, industry and jobs to ensure long-term prosperity is shared by everyone, and that it was “critical that we maintain an open debate on the challenges facing the UK.”
Starmer’s spokesperson said it was right for him to apologize. Asked if an apology about offense caused rather than the comments themselves were enough, the spokesperson said questions on the detail of the apology were for Ratcliffe.
Manchester United fans flag up use of “colonized”
His comments were condemned by politicians, campaigners and by fan groups at Manchester United, including its Muslim Supporters Club who said the term “colonized” was frequently used by far-right activists to frame migrants as invaders.
“Public discourse shapes public behavior,” the group said. “When influential figures adopt language that mirrors extremist talking points, it risks legitimising prejudice and deepening division.”
Others noted that the Manchester United first team was largely made up of international players and staff, and questioned whether Ratcliffe should be commenting on British politics when he had moved to the tax haven Monaco.
Before Ratcliffe’s response, The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said Ratcliffe’s comments were inflammatory and should be withdrawn.
Immigration debate has intensified
Immigration has consistently been among the top voter concerns in Britain according to opinion polls, and has helped fuel the rise of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party Reform UK.
Rhetoric around immigration has hardened in recent years and a wave of protests broke out last summer outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Widespread rioting also occurred in 2024, sparked by false information circulating online that a teenager who killed three young girls was an Islamist migrant.
Sky said Ratcliffe had cited incorrect figures to back up his argument. He said the population had risen from 58 million to 70 million people since 2020. The Office for National Statistics estimates the UK population was 67 million in mid-2020 and 69 million in mid-2024.
The population was around 59 million in 2000. Ratcliffe and his office did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the figures he used.
Farage responded to the comments by saying that Britain had undergone mass immigration that had changed the character of many areas in the country. “Labour may try to ignore that but Reform won’t,” he said.
Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s most successful businessmen, responded to the outcry with a statement saying it was important to raise the issue of immigration, but that he regretted his “choice of language” had caused concern.
The founder of chemicals giant INEOS, and owner of nearly a third of Manchester United, had told Sky News that high migration and people living on benefits were damaging the economy.
Finance minister: Comments were “disgusting”
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK has been colonized — it’s costing too much money,” Ratcliffe said in the interview aired on Wednesday.
“The UK has been colonized by immigrants, really, hasn’t it?” he added.
Starmer said the remarks were wrong and would play into the hands of those who wanted to divide the country. Finance minister Rachel Reeves said the comments were “unacceptable” and “disgusting.”
On Thursday, INEOS issued a statement from Ratcliffe in response to “reporting of his comments.”
“I am sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe and caused concern but it is important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth,” he said.
He said he wanted to stress that governments must manage migration alongside investment in skills, industry and jobs to ensure long-term prosperity is shared by everyone, and that it was “critical that we maintain an open debate on the challenges facing the UK.”
Starmer’s spokesperson said it was right for him to apologize. Asked if an apology about offense caused rather than the comments themselves were enough, the spokesperson said questions on the detail of the apology were for Ratcliffe.
Manchester United fans flag up use of “colonized”
His comments were condemned by politicians, campaigners and by fan groups at Manchester United, including its Muslim Supporters Club who said the term “colonized” was frequently used by far-right activists to frame migrants as invaders.
“Public discourse shapes public behavior,” the group said. “When influential figures adopt language that mirrors extremist talking points, it risks legitimising prejudice and deepening division.”
Others noted that the Manchester United first team was largely made up of international players and staff, and questioned whether Ratcliffe should be commenting on British politics when he had moved to the tax haven Monaco.
Before Ratcliffe’s response, The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said Ratcliffe’s comments were inflammatory and should be withdrawn.
Immigration debate has intensified
Immigration has consistently been among the top voter concerns in Britain according to opinion polls, and has helped fuel the rise of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party Reform UK.
Rhetoric around immigration has hardened in recent years and a wave of protests broke out last summer outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Widespread rioting also occurred in 2024, sparked by false information circulating online that a teenager who killed three young girls was an Islamist migrant.
Sky said Ratcliffe had cited incorrect figures to back up his argument. He said the population had risen from 58 million to 70 million people since 2020. The Office for National Statistics estimates the UK population was 67 million in mid-2020 and 69 million in mid-2024.
The population was around 59 million in 2000. Ratcliffe and his office did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the figures he used.
Farage responded to the comments by saying that Britain had undergone mass immigration that had changed the character of many areas in the country. “Labour may try to ignore that but Reform won’t,” he said.
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