Commemorate to mobilise

On 6 June 2024, the free world gathered on the beaches of Normandy.

80 years earlier, the allied democracies had landed there to bring down Nazism.

They had agreed to "ally themselves with the devil", the worst of regimes — that of Stalin — to triumph over the absolute evil embodied by the black Nazi uniforms. It was a short-lived collaboration, which gave the Soviet Union an essential opportunity to contribute to victory, alas already without regard for its own people, who were immediately plunged back into the darkness of dictatorship.

The successor to this, V. Putin, was not in attendance this time, having chosen to break with the international rules introduced after the end of the fighting. The true fascist nature of his regime — totalitarian and nationalist, imperialist and revisionist —- explains why a new spirit of mobilisation against the man who claims to have already declared war on our values was blowing in the breeze off Omaha Beach.

These ceremonies, which were so successful and led by the youngest, were a great source of emotion, but they did not have the taste of nostalgia. The few veterans present were the first to recognise in Volodymyr Zelensky the leading resistance fighter against the new evil from the East; he received an exceptional standing ovation, reflecting the symbolism he represented with the tragedy of his people under attack.

Everyone has understood that we again face an existential challenge, thrust upon the world by the worst enemies of freedom and human rights. And that those who once gave their lives for these values were an example and a call to action. Totalitarianism is back, with its trail of terror, war, torture and murder and its unacceptable attacks on the integrity and dignity of the human person.

While "the Global South" does not seem to be perturbed by this, it is the responsibility of the oldest democracies to mobilise given the magnitude of the danger.

It is up to them to resolutely rise up against it if they are to avoid being obliged to take action. Looking back at the Normandy landings and the sacrifices that were required is a reminder that our democracies had the courage and the means to do so back then. — and that, if necessary, they shall do it again.