IN PICTURES | National funeral of Jimmy Carter in the United States

Five American presidents gathered around the coffin of their predecessor: the national funeral of Jimmy Carter gave America an image of unity, fleeting and certainly misleading, eleven days before the inauguration of Donald Trump.

In the front rows of the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, all the actors and actresses of the great political convulsions of recent decades in the United States came to pay tribute to the 39^e president, died on December 29 at the age of 100.

Outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a eulogy.

Before the start of the ceremony, his predecessor and now Republican successor, who signed a stunning political return on November 5, spoke very kindly with Barack Obama.

On the same row: former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, defeated by Donald Trump in 2016 at the end of a campaign of rare aggression, which set the tone for all those that followed since.

Thursday morning, the litany of affectionate speeches, the solemnity of the protocol, the religious ritual erased, only in appearance, the divisions and violent personal enmities which mark American political life.

We saw Mike Pence, former vice-president of Donald Trump, shaking hands with his former boss. The image is astonishing, for those who remember that the most rabid Trumpists called for him to be hanged in January 2021, when he refused to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Also present, Kamala Harris, outgoing vice-president and unsuccessful candidate against Donald Trump during the last presidential election. As well as George W. Bush, sitting in front of former Democratic Vice-President Al Gore, who conceded defeat to him in the 2000 presidential election, after a long suspense.

This funeral closes nearly a week of mourning.

Jimmy Carter was a one-term president, from 1977 to 1981.

The first president to pass the age of 100, Carter died in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Thursday was declared a day of national mourning, with federal administrations closed.

Joe Biden also ordered that flags be flown at half-mast for 30 days, as is customary. They will therefore still be for the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, which the Republican criticized.

The future president paid tribute to Jimmy Carter after the announcement of his death, but he has several times since denounced the decision taken by the former president to hand over the Panama Canal.

Initially perceived as weak by his peers in Washington, Jimmy Carter established himself internationally as a peacemaking statesman, notably negotiating the first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab country, Egypt. When his death was announced, tributes poured in from all over the world.

After his mandate, he distinguished himself in various initiatives in favor of democracy and human rights, a humanitarian commitment which earned him international recognition, until the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Jimmy Carter had been in hospice care since February 2023 in Plains, where he died and will be buried alongside his wife, Rosalynn Carter.