France hopes to send ‘strategic signal’ about Europe’s renewed military focus at Bastille Day celebrations – Europe live
Morning opening: Bastille Day
Jakub Krupa
Over 300 vehicles and 6,500 soldiers will march down the iconic Champs-Élysées in central Paris this morning as part of today’s Bastille Day celebration in Paris, which is set to “send a strategic signal” about France and Europe’s military awakening.
Marking the importance of international cooperation, the parade will also include 500 troops from the countries involved in the Coalition of the Willing, including Germany, and 25 soldiers from Ukraine.
It will be Emmanuel Macron’s tenth – and final – parade ahead of next year’s presidential election. He has a strong guest list this year, though, with many leaders staying overnight after yesterday’s talks on Ukraine, including Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
The parade begins 10am local time (9am BST) and we will show it here, bringing you all the key updates.
Elsewhere, we are expecting some news from Brussels with Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine all making progress in their accession talks with the European Union.
Marta Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, called it a “Super Tuesday.”
“In the for more than two decades, we have not had four accession conferences in one day, and this will happen today,” she said.
Montenegro is the frontrunner to join the EU next with more than half of “clusters” closed, Kos said, but all four countries are making good progress in delivering the reforms requested of them.
Lots for us to cover.
I will bring you all the latest here.
It’s Tuesday, 14 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
France on heightened alert for Bastille Day, World Cup semifinal public events
The Bastille Day parade in Paris is now over, but this is not the end of big events in France today as by a coincidence Les Bleus will play in the World Cup semi-final against Spain later tonight.
70,000 security personnel have been deployed across the country to protect all sorts of public events yesterday and today, including tonight’s game in Dallas, Le Figaro reported.
French interior minister Laurent Nuñez told BFM TV that the authorities are “maintaining a high level of vigilance,” and are ready to “put an immediate stop to any disorder.”
Nuñez confidently said that the authorities will monitor celebrations – “and France will win, so there will be celebrations” – and act whenever needed. “No unruly behavior will be tolerated,” he said.
Jakub Krupa
There is something very stark in the way some French media are framing today’s event as a “wartime parade,” repeatedly asking if France is ready for a potential conflict with Russia.
In this sense, today’s show was meant to be a show of force and a display of determination and unity with European partners.
As the parade ends, Macron is not on his phone, but deep in conversation with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, before turning to other departing leaders, including Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen.
Oh, to be a fly on Champs-Élysées!
The leaders are now back on their social media, with Macron (his team, more like) joining in special thanks for the French firefighters who were involved in the parade amid continuing wildfires in different parts of the country (11:48).
He said:
“A special thought for all our firefighters and rescue services who are battling today in the face of the fires, and the nation’s gratitude.”
We are now listening to la Musique de la Marine nationale with a special medley celebrating the 400th birthday of the French Navy, combined with a very complex and pretty impressive choreography and ending with a moving rendition of La Marseillaise – with Macron now joining in singing (10:26).
Meanwhile, the French media are reporting that a 101-year-old French veteran of the Special Air Service, Col Achille Muller, is also involved in today’s parade.
He is aboard a helicopter flying over Paris during today’s commemorations.
Earlier this year, he performed a tandem skydive to mark the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944, because why not?
I mentioned earlier that this is Emmanuel Macron’s last Bastille Day parade in office (9:46, 10:28, 10:28).
His most likely* successor, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, has chosen to attend the Bastille Day celebrations in Nice instead.
Nice’s parade is also being held 10 years after a terrorist ploughed into crowds after a Bastille Day fireworks display there, killing 86 and wounding more than 400. Macron is expected to travel there later today to also mark the anniversary.
* subject to the resolution of the ongoing court cases
Bulgaria pulls out from Coalition of the Willing
For all the signs of European unity in Paris, there are also some slight exceptions.
Bulgaria’s prime minister Rumen Radev used yesterday’s meeting of the Coalition of the Willing to tell partners that he will be taking Bulgaria out of the group.
“We’re not participating in a coalition that insists on continuing financial and military aid to Ukraine,” Radev told reporters in comments reported by Bloomberg (£).
“The solution to this conflict is not in prolonging it by military means, but in a strong diplomatic mission that will finally put an end to the escalation.”
For a bit more background on Radev, see our story from April here:
But Radev is attending the Bastille Day celebrations today.
During the parade you could also see some members of the firefighter brigade.
Their presence this year is even more important than usual given the massive wildfires the country has been battling with in the last few weeks.
The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest by last night.
The mayor of Fontainebleau, Julien Gondard, said he was shocked and angered. “This exceptional area is consumed by flames, we’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the local TV station ICI Paris Île-de-France. “The forest is fragile and it’s in a critical condition.”
The June heatwaves that hit Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists has said.
Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters such as heatwaves and wildfires.
Jakub Krupa
I mean, you can’t really get tired of these pictures, can you?
France marks Bastille Day with military parade in Paris – in pictures
Ukrainian troops march down Champs-Élysées as part of Bastille Day parade – in pictures
Jakub Krupa
Just a reminder that you can watch it all live with us here:
We can also see the multinational Nato batallion stationed in Estonia, including the French 3rd Marine Artillery Regiment, among others.
Troops from Coalition of the Willing march down Champs-Élysées
And we now have the troops from the Coalition of the Willing marching down Champs-Élysées.
Flags of Albania and Australia at the front, but I can also see Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden among others…
A group of Ukrainian troops march at the end, saluting the leaders, and getting very warm applause.
Macron, Zelenskyy and other leaders are watching on from the tribune.
Patrouille de France fly over Champs-Élysées
Et voilà! Patrouille de France are now in the air, flying over the Champs-Élysées to release colourful vapors that form a French flag.
(Yes, of course I will show you pictures as soon as we have them!)
They are flanked by two Mirage 2000 aircraft, piloted by French pilots, but accompanied by Ukrainian pilots undergoing training with the French air force.
They are then followed by aircraft from the French and other allied forces, including an absolutely massive plane with an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) radar.
Bastille Day parade’s guest list shows evolution of Macron’s thinking – snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
As Macron climbs up the honorary tribune and joins other leaders attending the parade, let me make one observation.
There is something symbolic in how Macron approaches his last parade as he nears the end of his term next year compared to the first one in 2017.
Back then, he was keen to impress the freshly inaugurated US president Donald Trump, just starting his first term, who was invited as his guest of honour. He even got the French army band to play Daft Punk’s Get Lucky to woo his counterpart!
Ten years on, he oversees his last parade surrounded by mostly European leaders – Zelenskyy, Merz, Starmer, Frederiksen, Tusk and others – in an attempt to send a clear signal about Europe’s re-emerging power.
The Élysée Palace says the parade will be “a powerful symbol of Europe that is becoming aware of how dangerous the world is and that it must take its destiny into its own hands”.
Jakub Krupa
Macron reportedly hates talking to his entourage about his “lasts” as he is now well into the last year of his presidency, but surely it’s a moving personal moment for him too as he takes part in this ceremony in this role for the final time.
