The French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to call on the UK to revisit its decision of imposing a 14-day quarantine period on visitors from abroad during his trip to the UK on Thursday. Macron, on his first visit abroad since the coronavirus outbreak, is in London to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Gen Charles de Gaulle’s broadcast announcing an alliance with Winston Churchill, “the leader of the British empire”, and the launching of the French resistance. He will meet Boris Johnson for bilateral talks in Downing Street, as well as meet with Prince Charles at Clarence House. The political talks are likely to include a French call for the UK to revisit its decision to impose a quarantine on visitors. Since 15 June, France has been operating what is described as a voluntary quarantine on visitors from Britain. Both leaders have seen their poll ratings fall during their handling of the pandemic. France has suffered 29,547 deaths and the UK 42,513 although the figures are not completely comparable. French officials stress that Macron will not broach the state of Brexit talks since the issue must be handled at an European commission and not bilateral level. But France is known to be concerned by the lack of progress in the talks, especially on defence co-operation. The two leaders are expected to discuss the Turkish military intervention in Libya, to which France is vehemently opposed, seen as a threat to security across North Africa and the coherence of the western defence alliance Nato. Ahead of the visit the hoardings protecting the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square from protesters will be taken down. Two statues of De Gaulle were also vandalised in France during Black Lives Matter protests. One statue in the northern French town of Hautmont was daubed with the word ‘slaver’ and defaced with orange paint. Another, in a Paris suburb, was damaged and covered in yellow paint. As part of the commemorations Johnson will announce MBEs for four veterans of the French resistance, recognising their role in defending the UK and France from Nazi Germany. Macron in turn will give the Légion d’Honneur to the City of London in gratitude for the British role in housing leaders of the French resistance, and helping to direct joint resistance operations inside France with the British Special Operations Executive. De Gaulle’s broadcast from the BBC to the French nation was made by chance on the same day as Churchill’s “finest hour” speech in the Commons was nearly not made. There were objections in the British War Cabinet that De Gaulle, a relatively obscure brigadier general, should not be allowed to mount the flag of resistance if there was any chance the government led by Marshal Petain might, despite its surrender to Germany act in the interests of the British alliance. Churchill, asleep in the Commons after his own speech, had to be roused to be told he needed to overcome this internal British opposition to handing De Gaulle such status. De Gaulle had fled to London the day before 17 June. In his speech De Gaulle declared “the last word had not been said, France was not alone and the flame of the French resistance must and shall not go out”. After Johnson and Macron’s meeting, the two men are expected to visit the house in which De Gaulle stayed, as well as watch a fly past by the RAF and the French Air Force. Speaking ahead of the meeting Johnson said: “Eighty years ago Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the French resistance, arrived in London knowing that the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy that Britain and France shared were under threat. He pledged that we would stand together to defend those values and protect our citizens from those bent on destroying us. “The struggles we face today are different to those we confronted together 80 years ago. But I have no doubt that – working side by side – the UK and France will continue to rise to every new challenge and seize every opportunity that lies ahead.” Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are due to travel from their home in Birkhall, Scotland, to London for the event.