Over two centuries since the storming of the prison, Bastille Day no longer has much to do with breaking the power of the mighty. Back in his day, the imperial president Charles de Gaulle loved using July 14 to stage vast displays of France’s military might. The tradition was continued by Nicolas Sarkozy, whose 2010 iteration of the parade included detachments from the former colonies — a display of France’s continuing global power status.

After attending last year’s Bastille Day side-by-side with Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump was so impressed that he suggested Washington should do the same. And on Sunday it was the turn of German chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch premier Mark Rutte to be wowed by French military hardware, this time featuring a rather curious fellow flying around the Élysée Palace on a hoverboard. If some doubted its military efficacy, Macron told Instagram he was “proud of our modern, innovative army.”

The liberal hero’s boast of leading an all-powerful “Jupiterian” presidency is a reference to the Roman king of the gods rather than the fifth planet from the Sun. But in an address marking this year’s Bastille Day, Macron also made clear that he wants France to be more than just a global power. Following after Trump’s own call for a sixth branch of the armed forces, the French president announced the creation of a military space command, integrated into the air force, to ensure France’s defense “of space and by way of space.”