French President Emmanuel Macron vowed on Sunday that 2024 will be a year of French pride and hope, marked by the Paris Olympic Games and the re-opening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, in his traditional New Year’s Eve address from the Élysée Palace in the French capital.
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“Only once in a century does one host Olympic and Paralympic Games, only once in a millennium does one rebuild a cathedral,” Macron said. “2024, a year of determination, choices, recovery, pride. In fact, a year of hope.”
Macron spoke in a televised address ahead of New Year celebrations during which around 90,000 police and 5,000 soldiers were set to be deployed across France to ensure security and address what the government called a “very high” terrorist threat.
France will continue to “re-arm” itself when it comes to security matters, but also boost public education and social cohesion, he said.
Macron’s address came after a year that saw widespread protests against the government’s pension reform, protests and riots that followed the police killing of a teenager at a traffic stop outside Paris, and the recent passage of an immigration bill endorsed by the far right.
He said that 2023 was marked by wars in “Ukraine, the Middle East, and Gaza”, and noted that 41 French citizens were killed and others taken hostage in the October 7 “terrorist attacks in Israel”.
“We are not forgetting [the hostages],” he said.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
Click on the player to watch Macron’s address in full.
