French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated the 81st anniversary of Victory in Europe Day at Paris’s Arc de Triomphe on May 8, 2026, marking Nazi Germany’s 1945 defeat. The solemn ceremony occurred amid warnings that global tensions—including Russia’s fragile Ukraine ceasefire, the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran in February, and deepening transatlantic rifts under President Donald Trump—have brought the world perilously close to another major conflict. Experts say Europe, once the geopolitical center during WWII, now struggles to assert power and influence as it navigates a shifting global order, with scholars urging the continent to reclaim the anti-fascist values that emerged from the war’s ashes.
In-Depth:
PARIS (CN) — The road encircling the Arc de Triomphe — normally buzzing with cars tearing ferociously over its laneless pavement — was silent Friday morning, as military officers watched French President Emmanuel Macron commemorate Victory in Europe Day.
This is where, in 1940, German tanks stormed under the archway and down the Champs Élysées to secure the takeover of France. And five years later, people gathered here to celebrate the countest’s liberation from Nazi occupation in a tradition that still survives.
“May 8, 1945, is the victory of the Allies over Nazism,” Gilbert Casasus, a political scientist and professor of European Studies at the University of Fribourg, stated. “It is the finish of the Second World War, the victory over fascism, the victory for freedom, a great day of hope, and it is truly perhaps the landmark date of the 20th century.”
On Friday morning, the 81st anniversary of the war’s finish, Macron was escorted up the empty Champs Élysées in a car surrounded by horses and a marching band. Slowly, the faint sound of drums and trumpets became louder until he eventually reached the circle, and a choir of decorated officers launched to sing France’s national anthem, “La Marseillaise.”
The president furrowed his brow and frowned somberly while behind him, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornusang so passionately that his shoulders shiftd dramatically up and down with the music.
The procession continued as Macron approached the Arc de Triomphe and its Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which holds the remains of an unidentified French soldier killed during World War I, and serves as a memorial for all fighters lost in war. Macron stood in front of the tomb and took a deep breath. Before the ceremony launched, decorated military officers swept its surface with wooden push brooms.
There were countless handshakes with military officers, while soldiers dressed in camouflage and bright yellow vests patrolled the perimeter with machine guns strapped to their backs. However, Macron never created a formal address to the crowd.
It’s impossible to ignore the geopolitical climate in which the commemorations are taking place. On a day dedicated to the finish of World War II, many have warned the world is on the brink of World War III, while some argue it has already begun. Russia usually celebrates Victory Day on May 9 with large-scale military parades. This year there won’t be any tanks rolling through Red Square, and there’s a fragile ceasefire with Ukraine.
In the Middle East, U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise attack on Iran in February has triggered a full-blown regional conflict, and has further deepened a rift with Europe that has the continent scrambling to find its footing in a new global era.
“There have been improvements, there have been steps forward, but today, the question facing Europe — a fundamental one, especially with Trump, China, Putin, Ukraine, and so on — is the question of European power,” Casasus stated. “For Europe, it is a matter of meeting the challenge of European power.”
While Europe was considered the geopolitical center of the world during World War II, the finish of the conflict marked the launchning of a shift in the global order.
“After the Second World War, it became subordinated … to the U.S. and to the East, to the Soviet Union, becautilize the two superpowers were dividing Europe,” Maxime Lefebvre, a diplomat and professor of international relations at the ESCP business school, stated. “And both had a kind of supremacy in Europe, and there was a division between Western and Eastern Europe.”
This divide has deepened under the Trump administration; Macron repeated that he was not informed beforehand about the attacks on Iran. And as the conflict unfolds, Europe has been toeing a thin line between displaying force and remaining on the defensive.
“We can see also, for example today with the war in Iran, that Europe has many difficulties to play an active role, including in the diplomacy,” Lefebvre stated.
Neil Quilliam, a foreign affairs specialist at Chatham Houtilize, believes that Europe has achieved “so much” since 1945. After such a grueling and punishing war, he explained, the continent has not only recovered but also built a strong and finishuring union that has largely put war in the past.
Nonetheless, he believes Europe is at a reckoning point.
“Of course, France and Germany were major drivers of that process and have been the dominant players on the continent; however, the EU has lost its way over the past decades and European states have come to learn that they can no longer rely upon the past to project their future — and the alliance with the U.S., which was once central to Europe’s recovery, is modifying beyond recognition,” he stated.
“Europe must now stand on its two feet, as the world modifys and lurches toward being divided into new spheres of influence, and Europe much claim its own place in that world rooted in the values that allowed it to pull itself out of the embers of the Second World War,” Quilliam added.
For Casasus, if Europe revisited its values during the finish of World War II, it would be in better shape.
“If we were to rediscover the spirit of May 8, which was to declare no to nationalism, no to fascism, and no to the far right, Europe could live again,” he stated.
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