BERLIN: The world must draw lessons from the past and work together to beat the coronavirus pandemic, European leaders urged as the continent marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe. With parades and commemoration events cancelled or scaled down to contain the outbreak, Europe and the United States marked the victory over Nazi Germany in a sombre mood.
In Berlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel kept their distance as they paused in front of wreaths at Neue Wache — the country’s main memorial to the victims of war and dictatorship.
Steinmeier then delivered an outdoor speech urging nations to remember how they joined forces to fight the tyranny of Nazism and said the same unity was needed now to defeat a virus that has killed 270,000 people globally. “For us Germans, ‘never again’ means ‘never again alone’,” he said. “We want more, not less cooperation in the world — also in the fight against the pandemic.
In Britain, one of the countries hardest hit by the virus in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also drew wartime parallels with the battle against the pandemic. “On this anniversary, we are engaged in a new struggle against the coronavirus which demands the same spirit of national endeavour that you exemplified 75 years ago,” he said in a letter to veterans. The Red Arrows, Britain’s Royal Air Force aerobatics display team, performed a flypast over central London, trailing red white and blue smoke. UK broadcasters marked a nationwide two minute’s silence at 11am (1000 GMT). - Muted commemorations
The May 8 commemorations were muted this year as the continent grapples with its biggest crisis since World War II — this time an invisible enemy that has sickened more than 3.8 million worldwide. With veterans already at an advanced age, organisers deemed it too risky for them to attend events even in countries that have begun to ease lockdown measures. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron attended a small ceremony at the Arc of Triumph on a near-deserted Champs-Elysees. In the US, President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will join a wreath-laying ceremony at the World War II memorial in Washington, DC.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly
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