Léonard Lièvre, journalist and author of the book The Queen and the Presidents published in 2021 by Konfident editions, said Friday September 9 on franceinfo that Nicolas Sarkozy had “made the biggest mistake of all, it was not to invite the queen to the 65th anniversary of D-Day“in Normandy in 2009.”A colossal mistake that hasn’t really been fixed“, he says.
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From there, relations with the French presidents cooled a little. President Emmanuel Macron is “the only President of the Republic who has not met personally, neither on a private visit nor on an official visit“Queen Elizabeth II, he recalls. Elizabeth II”got a little tired of a number of faults in French diplomacy“, he analyzes. General de Gaulle was however the “prefer“of the sovereign.”He was almost part of the family“, he underlines.
franceinfo: How to explain that Emmanuel Macron never met Queen Elizabeth II one-on-one?
Leonard Hare: What is very unfortunate is that President Macron is the only President of the Republic who has not met him personally, either on a private visit or on an official visit. He’s seen her twice, maybe three. I have two very specific memories in mind. It was the G7 in Scotland in 2021 and then the D-Day commemorations in Portsmouth in 2019. But he was not received as François Hollande had been. François Hollande was received on a private visit, but not on a state visit, that’s the nuance. But François Hollande had received the queen on a state visit. A five-year term is not very long. The queen’s program is loaded. That of the President of the Republic too. It can, strictly speaking, be understood. On the other hand, what is very surprising is that Emmanuel Macron, who is President of the French Republic, which is not nothing for the Queen of England, did not have an audience, if only only a very short audience, as was the case for François Hollande in Windsor.
How do you analyze it?
I think the queen got a little tired of a number of faults, even inconsistencies, of French diplomacy. Starting in particular with Nicolas Sarkozy, who committed the biggest fault of all and which has not really been repaired, it is not to invite the queen during the 65th anniversary of the Normandy landings. It was a colossal mistake. The British are still angry with us and rightly so.
Who was Queen Elizabeth’s favorite French president?
His favorite was General de Gaulle, but the general is unusual because he had a history with the royal family. He was almost part of the family. When he arrived in London, this big scoundrel that no one knew, saying “I represent France”, everyone laughed a little under the hood. The English are not always easy, especially with the French. The only ones who marked a sign of attention, or even more, of affection, he wrote in his memoirs, were the King of England and his wife.