Emmanuel Macron broke from official protocol yesterday to deliver a touching tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in English.
The French president’s address from the Elysee Palace in Paris praised the monarch’s ‘wisdom and empathy’, adding ‘we all feel an emptiness’.
‘To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was the Queen,’ the French leader said during the three-minute speech posted on social media. ‘Elizabeth II mastered our language, loved our culture and touched our hearts. From her coronation on, she knew and spoke with all of our presidents. No other country had the privilege of welcoming her as many times as we did.’
Mr Macron made the address in front of the French and EU flags, as well as a Union Jack. The British flag appears at the Elysee only when a high-level dignitary from the UK is present.
Mr Macron made the address in front of the French and EU flags, as well as a Union Jack. The British flag appears at the Elysee only when a high-level dignitary from the UK is present
Mr Macron sat near the Queen during the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Portsmouth in June 5, 2019
President Joe Biden, pictured with his wife Jill signed a book of condolences in the White House
Even members of the New York Yankees stood during a moment of silence before their game against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium
Members of a ballet company laid flowers outside the British embassy in Tokyo
Mr Macron made his speech in English standing in front of the flags of France, the EU and the UK
French daily Le Figaro carried the headline ‘Goodbye to the Queen’, praising her as ‘a rock for her kingdom’ after seven decades of devoted public service. It praised Her Majesty’s command of the French language and her ‘old-fashioned elegance’.
‘Let’s face it,’ a front-page editorial said, ‘the willingly rebellious French, the heir to a people who once executed their king, often found themselves secretly admiring her dignity, and perhaps even envying this country whose queen was a remarkable woman.’
Left-wing newspaper Liberation carried on its front page an elegant black-and-white photo of the Queen in her younger years, draped in a black cape, and the headline ‘England’s sorrow’.
‘A universal icon, she has gone through a century of history without ever weakening, without ever giving up,’ the paper said.
The cover of a special edition of the glossy celebrity magazine Paris Match described the Queen’s death as ‘the end of a world’.
In Germany, best-selling daily Bild wrote ‘the world is crying for the Queen’, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said the monarch ‘encapsulated normality and the fulfilment of duty’.
Sydney commemorated the queen by projecting her image onto the world famous opera house
The Milan-based Corriere della Sera newspaper described Her Majesty as ‘a leader par excellence’. ‘Elizabeth II has always remained true to herself, even to the point where she sometimes seemed alienated from the present,’ the Right-wing daily wrote.
‘The affection felt in these hours shows that it is not always necessary to be fashionable to earn esteem and sympathy. Leaders and politicians – not only in Britain – should keep this in mind.’
Spain’s El Pais said that for more than 70 years the Queen ‘maintained the neutrality that guaranteed the continuity of the British crown’. Dutch tabloid De Telegraaf hailed the great-grandmother of 12 as ‘a global icon ’. Its front-page headline was: ‘A Queen in the whole world’s hearts.’
The paper’s lead editorial said the monarch was ‘a rock’ for many British people during ‘turbulent times’.
The Volkskrant said the Queen ‘was like a grandmother and mother to the British’, adding: ‘She was always there for the people, in good times and bad.’
Right-leaning Belgian daily Le Soir stated on its front page that she was simply ‘the Queen of the century’. ‘Is this the end of an era?’ the paper asked.
‘The fact that the Queen survived everything, everyone, provided proof that the world’s house of cards could shake but never crumble. What now?’
Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald claimed ‘the world’s most famous and admired woman leaves behind a fractured and fraying kingdom’.
In a dispatch filed from London, the newspaper said the Queen’s passing was ‘a hammer blow to the British psyche’.
Monuments and public buildings across Australia were lit up with images of Her Majesty after a 96-gun salute had been held in Canberra. Prime minister Anthony Albanese said the tributes reflected ‘the light she brought to so many’. But some republicans refused to wait until the official mourning period ends before calling for Australia to ditch the Royal Family.
‘Our thoughts are with her family and all who loved her. Now Australia must move forward,’ Australian Greens Party leader Adam Bandt said on Twitter.
Chinese president Xi Jinping lamented the Queen’s passing, saying: ‘Her death is a great loss to the British people.’
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: ‘Britain held out the hand of reconciliation to Germany, and the hand of reconciliation was also the Queen’s hand.’ He called a state visit by the Queen to West Germany in 1965 ‘one of the most important and powerful symbols’ of post-war friendship.
…except Putin mouthpiece
Vladimir Putin propagandist Margarita Simonyan has lashed out at the global outpouring of tributes for the Queen, saying her death was receiving too much attention.
The 42-year-old boss of the Kremlin-backed RT channel sent out the bizarre missive on her Telegram channel late on Thursday night.
‘Colleagues, let’s finish up with the amount of news about the Queen,’ Miss Simonyan wrote. ‘She died. Well, rest in peace. We all die.’ The self-styled journalist’s channel has been banned across most of the EU for peddling fake news and conspiracy theories.
The RIA news agency, another Kremlin mouthpiece, suggested that the future of the country was in doubt.
‘The death of the Queen calls into question the very existence of the United Kingdom,’ it claimed.
The Kremlin confirmed that Putin would not travel to Britain for the funeral.
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