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Let's celebrate May 9, yes. But not with anyone...

The rehearsal for the May 9 parade, last year
The rehearsal for the May 9 parade, last year

(BRUSSELS2) Some European leaders - notably the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman - are preparing to make, in a month, May 9, the trip to Moscow, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the victory over Nazism. This celebration is not innocent, however, this year. In the midst of disguised intervention in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin intends to derive some glory from the presence of a certain world aeropagus.

Leaving the monopoly of the celebration of May 9, 1945 and the victory over Nazism to Russia is a gross political error. It's remaking history. If the Red Army and the living forces of the USSR at the time unquestionably enabled this victory, they were not alone. Far from there. It is to forget the important effort provided by the other allies, British at the head and Americans, during all this war. It is also to ignore the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact which was a blow in the back, an act of treachery to Western democracies by allowing Hitler at the time to free himself from a possible front.

The presence of several European leaders on the Kremlin podium for the parade of the Red Army is a negative political act. It is not intended to pay homage to history but to celebrate a present policy which has returned to the age of confrontation between two Eastern and Western blocs. Europeans would do well to seize the event, May 9, 1945, also Europe Day, to celebrate in their own way and in a united way, what is the very essence of Europe: democracy .

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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