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16-07-2025
PARIS: France is celebrating Bastille Day with nationwide festivities commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution.
In Paris, the celebration features 7,000 participants marching along the Champs-Elysees including troops and armoured vehicles, followed by fighter jet flyovers and a spectacular drone light show at the Eiffel Tower.
The holiday showcases revolutionary spirit and military prowess. The parade beneath the Arc de Triomphe began with President Emmanuel Macron reviewing troops and relighting the eternal flame. Each uniform carries symbolic elements, particularly the distinctive French Foreign Legion contingent with their bearded troops wearing leather aprons and carrying axes.
In his Bastille Day speech, Macron highlighted growing global threats and announced increased military spending.
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto was the guest of honor this year as 200 Indonesian drummers joined the parade. The visit is expected to yield agreements on French military equipment purchases, including Rafale jets. Finnish, Belgian, and Luxembourg troops also participated, reflecting the event’s increasingly international character.
Special guests included Fousseynou Samba Cisse, a French man who received a personal invitation from Macron after rescuing two babies from a burning apartment. The holiday period also featured prestigious awards, with this year’s Legion of Honour recipients including Gisele Pelicot, who became a symbol for sexual violence victims during a high-profile trial.
Beyond Paris, the holiday brings family gatherings, firefighters’ balls, and rural festivals throughout France.
Every year, France hosts a special guest for Bastille Day, and this year it’s Indonesia, with President Prabowo Subianto representing the world’s largest Muslim country, which also a major Asian economic and military player.
Indonesian troops, including 200 traditional drummers, marched in Monday’s parade, and Indonesia is expected to confirm new purchases of Rafale fighter jets and other French military equipment during the visit. Prabowo, who was accused of rights abuses under Indonesia’s prior dictatorship, will be treated to a special holiday dinner at the Elysee Palace.
“For us as Indonesian people, this is a very important and historic military and diplomatic collaboration,’’ the commander of the Indonesian military delegation, Brig. Gen. Ferry Irawan, told media.
Finnish troops serving in the UN force in Lebanon and Belgian and Luxembourg troops serving in a NATO force in Romania also paraded through Paris, reflecting the increasingly international nature of the event.
Among those invited to watch will be Fousseynou Samba Cisse, a 39-year old Paris man who rescued two babies from a burning apartment earlier this month and received a last-minute invitation in a phone call from Macron himself.
“I wasn’t expecting that call,” he told online media Brut. “I feel pride.”
Beyond the military spectacle in Paris are growing concerns about an uncertain world. On the eve Bastille Day, Macron announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra French military spending in the next two years because of new threats ranging from Russia to terrorism and online attacks. The French leader called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support for Ukraine.
“Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,” Macron said; “we are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat and a proliferation of major conflicts.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
