This evening, French President Emmanuel Macron hosts US President Donald Trump for dinner at the Palace of Versailles. The venue was not chosen by chance and during the French leader’s two terms in office it has become a “showcase” of the French leader's diplomacy, notes Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
A few days after being elected president for the first time in 2017, Macron received his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the Palace of Versailles.
In July of the same year, Macron once again chose the splendor of the palace, once inhabited by the Sun King Louis XIV, to deliver a speech before both chambers of the French parliament and present the policies he will pursue as head of state.
In January 2018, Macron gathered 140 heads of global companies at the Palace of Versailles for the first edition of the "Choose France" business summit, designed to attract more foreign investment to the country. This forum then began to be held annually and always in Versailles.
Macron's predecessors – Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande used the Palace of Versailles less frequently for presidential events.
The palace is actually a tool of soft power diplomacy, commented Agence France-Presse.
"It is a showcase of the French image, which enchants and symbolizes the glamorous France", summarized a close friend of Macron back in 2018. "The Palace of Versailles is also a place of power, both monarchical and republican", he added at the time.
In 2022, two weeks before the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Macron hosted a European summit in the magnificent halls of the Palace of Versailles. Among the rooms where the discussions took place was the Salon de Hercules, whose ceiling is the largest painted ceiling in Europe.
In 2023, after the crisis in France over the adoption of pension reform and the unrest that followed the death of the young Nahel Merzouk, Macron received the British King Charles III at the Palace of Versailles. The gala dinner was then held in the Gallery of Mirrors, one of the most emblematic places in the palace, designed to pay tribute to the majesty of King Louis XIV and dazzle its visitors.
By inviting Trump to the Palace of Versailles now, Macron wants to make sure that his unpredictable American counterpart does not walk out of the G7 summit in Evian, as he did last year in Canada.