07/11/2025 Secretary General of the Assembly
“The Pyrenean Freedom Routes* are a living tribute to the values of dignity, liberty and responsibility towards one another – exactly the values that the Council of Europe has strived to protect for 76 years,” said Despina Chatzivassiliou, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, speaking in Toulouse at the ceremony marking the award of the “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe” label to the Pyrenean Freedom Routes, alongside Josette Durrieu, Honorary Senator of France and former PACE member.
She underlined that “these trails were once taken by people forced to flee to save their lives; today, they are paths we choose to walk freely. They remind us that freedom is never guaranteed.” Drawing on the history of over 55,000 men and women who crossed the mountains during the Second World War, she stressed that “their discreet and often anonymous courage remains one of the deepest foundations of European humanity.”
Ms Chatzivassiliou paid a special tribute to Ms Durrieu for transforming “memory into a living path,” ensuring that these mountains “are not only synonymous with fear and flight, but also with education, dignity and peace.” “When needed, every one of us must be ready – just as those before us – to carry freedom on our shoulders,” she concluded.
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*The Pyrenean Freedom Routes recount the little-known, yet profoundly significant, story of the thousands of women and men who, risking everything, escaped occupied France during the Second World War by crossing the Pyrenees. Nearly 55,000 people of all nationalities braved these mountain paths between France and Spain, seeking to join the Resistance or survive Nazi and Fascist persecution.