Hegseth Sparks Global Backlash With D-Day Immigration Speech as 40 Normandy Residents Are Vindicated
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 14
Hegseth Sparks Global Backlash With D-Day Immigration Speech as 40 Normandy Residents Are Vindicated
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 14
Summary
At the US cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Pete Hegseth cast immigration as a new "invasion" of European beaches, making it his only public appearance on D-Day in Normandy.
Those remarks triggered condemnation in France and the US, with a regional Socialist group calling them a "desecration," historian Robert Paxton denouncing "grotesque stupidity," and Republican Michael McCaul calling them inappropriate.
In Langrune-sur-Mer, about 40 members of a local residents' association said the speech proved right their earlier 179-word call to cancel Hegseth's visit to the village's 82nd-anniversary ceremony.
The protest then went viral: the association said it received hundreds of messages, many from Americans, after Hegseth skipped the Langrune event without giving a reason.
For residents, the episode turned a village of about 2,000 into a broader symbol of resistance over whether D-Day commemorations should be used to advance anti-immigration politics.