Macron on monuments: we will not erase our history and remove any statue

The president of the French republic, Emmanuel Macron, also spoke last night, in his third address to the nation on the coronavirus, on the subject of monument demolitions, declaring that France will not erase the traces of its history and will not demolish any statues. “I see that we are divided over everything,” Macron premised, “and I see that sometimes we also lose the sense of our history. Our uniting around republican patriotism is a necessity. We are a nation where everyone, whatever their origin or religion, must find their place. Is this true everywhere and for everyone? No. So our struggle must continue, intensify, to make sure that everyone gets the degree and profession that corresponds to his or her merits and talents, and we must fight against the fact that name, origin, and skin color too often still diminish the equality of opportunity that everyone must have.”

“We will be unyielding in the face of racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination,” the president added: “Strong new decisions will be made. But this noble struggle is diverted the moment it turns into communitarianism, into hate-filled rewriting, or false rewriting, of the past. This kind of struggle is also unacceptable because it is recovered by separatists. Tonight, my dear compatriots, I tell you very clearly: the Republic will not erase any trace or any name of its history. The Republic will not remove any statue. Rather, we must take a lucid look at our history as a whole, at all our memories, and in particular at our relationship with Africa, in order to build a present and a possible future, between one shore and the other of the Mediterranean, with a will for truth and without revisiting or denying what we are.”

“We will not build our future in disorder,” Macron concluded. “Without republican order, there is no security, no freedom. On our soil, policemen and gendarmes are the only ones who ensure this order. They are exposed to daily risks for us, and that is why they deserve the support of the public authorities and the gratitude of the nation.”

Macron on monuments: we will not erase our history and remove any statue

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.