Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

On July 24th we celebrate the anniversary of the famous “Vive Le Québec… Libre!” » pronounced by de Gaulle in 1967 from the balcony of the Hôtel-de-Ville in Montreal. A look back at a speech that put Quebec on the world map.

A speech can shake things up, change everything. The proof with this evocative moment of the Gaullist gesture.

A French Epic in America

Louis XV was a fateful ruler for France. The slightest of his mistakes was not the task of “ new France », an old term used to denote those areas of North America where a few brave Frenchmen, braving the cold and the unknown, had settled to establish the fur trade. Over time, some priests and young girls with bad lives were sent there. Distant epics by Cartier, Champlain and Montcalm. These adventurers discovered the first inhabitants of this land of snow: the Algonquin people. Despite violent episodes, some form of dialogue through trade between the French and the locals mostly ensued.

In a bad arbitration, Louis XV. no interest in maintaining the royal presence in these distant lands. France left the colony to its fate. Didn’t Voltaire write contemptuously that it was only “a few hectares of snow”? Quebec was ceded to the English in 1763. Paris retained only the small archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, whose waters were rich in cod.

Drowned in an English-speaking ocean for two centuries, orphans of their motherland, Quebecers managed against all odds to survive as a people. Grouped around the churches, they continued to develop thanks to the “revenge of the cradle”, that pre-Epistle natalist politics. From 60,000 when they left France, more than six million lived on the mythical banks of the Saint Lawrence River in the early 1960s.

Correcting the error of Louis XV

De Gaulle was involved in politics for centuries. He wanted the mistake of Louis XV. make amends. Give Quebec its rightful place in the concert of nations. Give back to this French voice in America what France owes it. As soon as he arrived at the Élysée Palace in 1958, he took over his pilgrim’s staff. On his orders, a Maison du Québec was opened in Paris. For its part, the ORTF set up an office across the Atlantic to brief the French on the realities of Quebec. Policy unfortunately abandoned since…

In 1967, Canadian authorities invited de Gaulle to an official visit to the country. In theory, the general should have landed in Ottawa, the federal capital, which is on English-speaking land. It wasn’t his will. To avoid this situation, he decides to travel by boat. In Brest, de Gaulle embarked on the Colbert on July 15, 1967. The destination is Quebec City, the only fortified city in America. During the crossing, he confided his intentions to his son-in-law, Alain de Boissieu: “I intend to strike. It’s gonna suck, but it has to. This is the last opportunity to atone for France’s cowardice.”

Hit!

As soon as he arrived in Quebec, the crowd cheered him on. La Belle-Province experiences the great hours of its “quiet revolution”. Once Canada’s poorest province, ridiculed and stigmatized by Anglophones, its people lived in unprecedented poverty. Anglophones also spoke of ” pea dinner (pea eaters) to commemorate the inhabitants of this distant annex linked to Canada by the incongruity of history. But now Quebec is showing its full potential. Thanks to an autonomous energy policy, people are finally getting up. In the hearts of Quebecers, independence seems to be a dream within reach. The general’s arrival is a symbol of that hope for many.

The day after his arrival, de Gaulle and Daniel Johnson, the Prime Minister of Quebec, boarded a limousine. You descend the main road into the province that runs along the Saint Lawrence River. your name ? The way of the king. De Gaulle does not dislike that. The general greets the assembled citizens as they pass by. Sometimes the convoy stops, like here in Donnacona, where the man of June 18 starts: “You are part of the French people. Your French Canadian, French Canadian people have only themselves to rely on. The Canadian officials almost suffocated. You haven’t seen anything yet! French and Quebec flags adorn a large triumphal arch on the convoy. In contrast, the maple flag is hay, the symbol of Canada. If the log says ” God Save the Queen ‘, the official anthem of Canada, the crowd erupts in boos – and sometimes even a few pulses…

An extraordinary gesture of rebellion against the established order

After an impressive journey, the General finally arrives in Montreal. The city’s mayor, Jean Drapeau, offers de Gaulle to greet the crowd from the steps of the Hôtel-de-Ville. De Gaulle will not be satisfied with waving his arms. He wants to express himself. “There is no microphone,” assures mayor Jean Drapeau – an opponent of independence… De Gaulle insists that his bodyguard finally – oh surprise – finds a microphone hidden in a corner!

In front of an excited audience, the general in military uniform raises his voice. “It is an immense emotion that fills my heart when I see the French city of Montreal in front of me (audience ovation). On behalf of the old country, on behalf of France, I salute you. I greet you with all my heart! I’m going to tell you a secret tonight that you won’t repeat (crowd laughs), and all along I’ve been in an atmosphere akin to liberation! (long ovation from audience)”.

At the end of the speech, de Gaulle delivers the great blow that he has carefully prepared. “Long live Montreal!” Long live Quebec! (Ovation)”. The General pauses for a moment. He catches his breath before throwing a massive cobblestone into the pond. “Long live free Quebec!” “. The audience is enthusiastic. howl of joy. France, a major world power, has just supported the independence of the Belle province.

Language is an action

The next day, their hatred erupted in the English-language press. THE Montréal Star evokes “an angry elephant” while the Time proposes “a guardianship” for the French leader. THE New York Times wins the misinformation award. “De Gaulle showed his true colors by galvanizing extremist movements in French Canada.”

In France, the political-media class does not follow its president. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou privately invokes the general’s “baseless madness” for Quebec. The world writes a scathing editorial: “Excess in everything…”. Angry Canadian authorities urged de Gaulle to interrupt his stay. The General scoffs at this, sending his critics back to their mediocrity: “Besides, all that abounds, frogs, and scribbles has no historical consequence under these great circumstances, any more than it ever had under others.”

Young Canadian Attorney General Pierre-Eliott Trudeau, a French-speaking Montrealer who is hostile to independence, tries to confront the general. “What would France say if the Canadian Prime Minister started shouting Brittany to the Bretons? “. De Gaulle replied to the father of the current Canadian Prime Minister: “We have neither concessions nor kindness to Mr. Trudeau, who is the opponent of the French cause in Canada.” Satisfied, de Gaulle returned to France on the presidential plane. He opened a breach and just placed Quebec on the world map. So much so that the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, to cover the event, invented a new combination of ideograms for the word Quebec – which simply didn’t exist in that language. Today there are still between 40 and 45% of Quebecers for the country’s independence.

ERB’s Indiscreet

Retailleau launches the boxing gloves • Kicking, he learned. on RTL, Bruno Retailleau turns out to be unsolvable. “We lost voters not because we moved too far to the right, but because we gave up our beliefs too often. Because we lacked firmness.” The head of the LR senators “doesn’t care” that a program is now almost identical to that of the RN. The door to uniting the right opened? “It’s been decades (…) as soon as we want to stand firm, let’s say ohlala, scandal, fascism is coming!” “. La Vendéen continues, visibly overwhelmed by Stéphane Carpentier’s questions: “We are fed up with political correctness. I’m elected, I have a mandate from the French people ‘The third man in a match on the right flank between Laurent Wauquiez and David Lisnard?