D-Day 65 Years—and One Day—Later

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D-Day 65 Years—and One Day—Later
The French always do them well, especially the milestone commemorations every five years of the liberation of their country from Nazi occupation during World War II.   But this year, on June 6th, the ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the 1944 Allied D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy that began that liberation will have special and touching significance.   It may well be the last time that any of the 135,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied veterans, who fought on those beaches will be in attendance.   The relatively few still alive are all well into their 80s now and in another five years for the commemorations in 2014, even fewer, or none may be physically up to the trip.   That’s one reason—in addition to the presence of U.S. President Barack Obama on his first official visit to France as the guest of French President Nicolas Sarkozy—that this year’s commemorations will be particularly numerous and lavish.   On June 5th, the eve of the landing anniversary, some 25 different sites along 50 miles of the Normandy coastline will be alight with fireworks displays and from the 5th to the 7th of June in France more than 150 different events linked to the landing anniversary are on the agenda.   Each of the main D-Day battle sites, Omaha and Utah beaches and the Pointe du Hoc for the Americans, Gold and Juno beaches for, respectively, British and Canadian forces and St. Mere l’Eglise, wrested from Nazi hands by American paratroopers, will have special ceremonies on D-Day itself. But in one event or another there will also be representatives from well more than a dozen other nations whose forces took part in the Normandy offensive.   As usual on these occasions, tourist accommodations have been booked well in advance, traffic will be heavy and security considerations will dictate invitation-only access to many commemoration events.         The American embassy in Paris announced that up until a deadline of May 28, it would receive and at least consider requests, even by e-mail, for invitations from Americans with some special tie to the Normandy landings. The embassy can be reached on the net at http://france.usembassy.gov   However, given the limited number of places available, without having locked up invitation or attendance arrangements made in advance, it would be wiser to plan on watching the festivities on television.   What also is special about this year’s anniversary and heavily loading the national calendar, however, is the fact that it falls on the eve of another monumental event.   On June 7, the day following the Normandy commemorations, the roughly 500 million citizens of France and the other 26 nations of the European Union (EU) will have the chance to go to the polls to elect 785 representatives to their European parliament for new five-year term   That is an event that is of major importance to French politicians, including President Sarkozy, who has been engaged for weeks trying to heighten what continues to be extremely low French voter interest in the election despite the spotlight his six-month term last year as EU President put on European affairs..   It is no easy task.   Among many of the EU nations but particularly in France, there is extremely little rank and file understanding and thus little interest about exactly what the European Union, its parliament and those standing for election to it actually do in ways that positively affect most voters’ basic concerns.   Put to the test, very few French spontaneously can recall the name of the politician representing them or aspiring to represent them in the EU parliament. The media are practically devoid of coverage of that parliament’s daily activities and actions except when they strike and hurt some political or financial nerve such as setting European Union quotas that hamper the French fishing industry       In addition, the voting system for EU parliamentary elections works on a proportional basis. In general, a voter casts a ballot for a prioritised list of candidates proposed by one of the contending national political parties.   Parliamentary seats are allotted proportionally to each party on the basis of the percentage of votes that party received in the election. If a party proposes 10 candidates and gets only enough votes to win five parliamentary seats, they will go to the first five on the prioritised list.   Too bad for the last five. And too bad for a voter’s desire and sense of casting a ballot for a known individual who will look after his or her concerns.   Another problem is that in France for years the European Commmunity has been used as a convenient whipping boy to blame for almost any failed French governmental policy.   Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy’s predecessor at the helm of the nation, was, in fact, notorious for his claims that he could and would have done more if the EU bureaucrats hadn’t overruled him or tied his hands.   By contrast, ever since he was elected to office two years ago, Sarkozy has made a major effort to enhance the EU’s role and powers and a sense that closer coordination with and among all the European Union nations is an essential for France’s future.   As voting day approaches, Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party holds a sizeable opinion poll lead over its main rival the French Socialist Party (PS.) But opinion polls are just that and only the results on June 7 really matter.   Whether they will be reliable indicators of French attitudes toward various European Union issues is another question and highly doubtful.   If they bother to go to the polls, most French voters, as will many in other European nations, almost certainly will be casting their ballots on the basis of the attitudes of their selected party on domestic, not European issues.         Indeed, that’s just the way the successful parties are certain to vaunt the results—as evidence of voter satisfaction with their domestic not their European policies. The less successful ones just will have to explain away their poor showing as best they can.   Will all that distract attention from President Obama’s visit?   Not…
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