FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Mr Macron will take part in other commemorative events alongside Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump, but has asked his Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, to lead the Juno Beach event on June 6. His decision to skip the international ceremony has been blasted as an “affront to allied veterans” by local lawmaker Philippe Gosselin, a member of the Les Républicains, France’s centre-right opposition bloc. In an open letter to Mr Macron sent earlier this month, Mr Gosselin said he was “deeply disappointed” to learn of his absence. “Like many of my fellow citizens, I am very surprised, extremely disappointed and even angry to learn that you will not be chairing the international ceremony at Juno Beach.

“Given that allied veterans … all aged between 95 and 100 will be present for what is likely to be the last time, it would have been normal for the Republic to have honoured them through your presence,” he said. “It is an affront to the veterans. I am ashamed for France,” he added in a Twitter post. Mr Gosselin urged the young leader to “reconsider his position” to save his country’s “honour,” but his plea appears to have fallen on deaf ears. The Prime Ministers of Canada and Belgium, Justin Trudeau and Charles Michel, are expected to join Mr Philippe at Juno Beach.

Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Macron will take part in other commemorative events alongside Prime Minister Theresa May.

Like many of my fellow citizens, I am very surprised, extremely disappointed and even angry to learn that you will not be chairing the international ceremony at Juno Beach Philippe Gosselin

A member of Mr Macron’s entourage has since insisted that French presidents only take part in international D-Day commemorations on key anniversaries, such as the 60th or the 70th. The 70th anniversary of the allied invasion in 2014 was led by Mr Macron’s predecessor François Hollande and attended by 19 heads of state, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Germany’s Angela Merkel and the Queen. The 41-year-old centrist is expected to attend a commemoration ceremony in Portsmouth on June 5 and meet up with Mrs May in Normandy the next day to lay the foundation stone for a monument to honour British-led troops who were killed in battle in 1944. “The occasion will enable us to celebrate the strength of the Franco-British friendship and our determination that that should continue,” the presidential source said.

Mr Macron is trying to keep a low profile since his humiliating defeat to rival Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement national (RN) in France’s elections to the European parliament last week. Mrs Le Pen’s RN, formerly known as the Front National, won 23.3 percent of the French vote, just a little under one percentage point ahead of Mr Macron’s La République en Marche (LREM) list on 22.4 percent. The result is a huge blow for Mr Macron, who has put Europe at the heart of his presidency and personally invested time in the EU campaign.

Marine Le Pen.