Vive la reine!
PARIS
THE capital of the French republic is better known for beheading monarchs than celebrating them. But
Paris went wild for Britain’s queen during her state visit last week. Crowds
on the Champs-Elysées cheered as her royal convoy drove past. Socialist
ministers lined up enthusiastically to greet her at her birthday garden party.
The queen’s arrival at the international ceremony on “Sword” beach to
remember the 70th anniversary of D-Day drew louder applause than that of
America’s president. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, even had a
flower market named after her on the capital’s Ile de la Cité, which happens
to be home to the Conciergerie prison where Marie-Antoinette was held
before being carted to the guillotine in 1793. “The queen of the French” ran
a headline in Le Monde, a left-learnig daily
Why are the French so smitten by the world’s longest-reigning queen?
Partly because she embodies the post-war era in which their modern
republic was born: she was crowned in 1953 and has known all seven
presidents of the Fifth Republic. Her affection for France, and grasp of the language, also help. […] After a
state dinner at the Elyzée Palace, with François Hollande, the president, she spoke of her “grande
affection” for the French people. This was the queen’s fifth state visit to the republic.
Another reason is that the French, shorn of their own monarchy, have long become avid voyeurs of
everybody else’s. Point de vue and Paris-Match, two magazines that splash photos of royals across their
pages, were launched back in the 1940s. The French turned the Monaco royals into celebrities before
reality television invented instant fame for everybody else. In 2011 the French cleared the airwaves to cover
Prince William’s wedding on live public television; 9m viewers tuned in to watch.
Perhaps the hidden reason for French royal fervour, though, is a secret envy mixed with regret. Mr
Hollande, stuck with a 16% popularity rating, is said to have noted wryly how refreshing it was to hear
cheering crowds when he accompanied the queen. Asked in a poll what they thought today of the execution
of Louis XVI in 1793, more of the French (29%) judged it “unfair” than “understandable” (23%). The French
“have a royalty complex”, wrote Hervé Gattegno in Le Point, and have built their republic on monarchical
traditions as if to compensate. The president, who has more sweeping powers than almost any other
modern democratic leader, is fussed over by much pomp and splendour—and the seat of the presidency is
a palace.
(In: The French and monarchy. The Economist, vol. 411, number 8891. June, 14th 2014. Adaptado)
Na frase “The capital of the French republic is better known for beheading monarchs than celebrating them.”, a palavra em destaque significa
