‘Elizabeth II cherished our tradition and touched our hearts’: France joins UK in grief – The Guardian

Throughout the Channel in proudly republican France, the dying of Queen Elizabeth II provoked an unexpectedly emotional response reflecting a long-held and profound affection for the British monarch.

The primary newspapers paid tribute to the Queen on the entrance pages of Friday’s editions.

The left-of-centre Libération devoted its complete cowl to a black and white {photograph} of her taken by Cecil Beaton in 1968 with the phrases La peine d’Angleterre – a play on the phrases reine (queen) and peine (sorrow) – and a 17-page particular.

In an editorial, the paper wrote: “Solely Louis XIV had an extended reign. The dying of the Queen of England (sic), introduced Thursday night by Buckingham Palace, despatched a shockwave internationally, because it was pure and destabilising on the identical time. The phrase ‘The Queen is useless’ was pronounced.”

The centre-right Le Figaro additionally carried a big picture of the Queen with the headline L’adieu à la reine (Farewell to the Queen). “The UK cries for its monarch. Her dying arouses a wave of emotion in the entire world,” it wrote.

Le Parisien produced a particular version, dedicating its entrance web page to the Queen and the headline: Nous l’avons tant aimée (We cherished her a lot). Its 13-page inside protection included images of Elizabeth II assembly each French president since Charles de Gaulle underneath the headline: Une love story avec la France.

Even native newspapers together with Le Télégramme, Sud Ouest, Nice Matin and La Provence cleared their deliberate entrance pages to run the story. Among the many easiest and most shifting was Corse Matin, whose front page was solely taken up with a sombre black and white {photograph} and the phrases “the Queen”.

Le Monde additionally selected a black and white front-page {photograph} and printed a 12-page particular complement.

If there was any lingering doubt whether or not Emmanuel Macron was “buddy or foe” – a question on which Liz Truss felt the jury was out – the decision got here in a statement from the Élysée Palace on Thursday night time.

“She was one along with her nation: she embodied a folks, a territory, and a shared will. And stability: above all of the fluctuations and upheaval of politics, she represented a way of eternity,” Macron wrote.

He added: “She held a particular standing in France and a particular place within the hearts of the French folks. No international sovereign has climbed the steps of the Élysée Palace extra usually than she, who honoured France with six state visits and met every of its presidents. For her, French was not a mere relic of Normandy ancestry that persevered in so many customs, however an intimate, cherished language. The Queen of 16 kingdoms cherished France, which cherished her again. This night, the folks of the UK and the Commonwealth are mourning their Queen. The folks of France be part of them of their grief.”

On Friday, in a moving address in English to “Expensive residents of the UK and the Commonwealth”, Macron added: “Her knowledge and empathy have helped us all to steer a path by the historic ups and downs of the final seven a long time. Together with her passing all of us really feel an vacancy.

“We’re grateful for her deep affection for France. Elizabeth II mastered our language, cherished our tradition and touched our hearts.”