France’s history is safe for now as President Emmanuel Macron stated his country will not allow any sort of “false rewriting of history” and that colonial-era statues will remain where they are. Macron also made a strong statement to be tough against bigotry and racism, but stressed that protesters or rioters would not be permitted to harm statues in any way.
Macron stated, in a video posted by TIME:
“We will be inflexible when it comes to tackling racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and new strong decisions will be made to reinforce the egality of chances… But this noble fight is perverted when it turns into communitarianism, into a false rewriting of history.”
“This is unacceptable when it is picked up by separatists. I tell you very clearly tonight my dear fellow citizens, the Republic will not erase any trace or name from its history… It will not forget any of its deeds or take down any statue. What we need to do is to look all together with lucidity on all of our history and all our memory. Our relation to Africa in particular so we can build a present and a possible future from one to the other side of Mediterranean.” (Daily Wire)
French President Emmanuel Macron publicly disavows racism but says colonial-era statues will stayhttps://t.co/cHzRzElXwX pic.twitter.com/C72iCsya2F
— TIME (@TIME) June 14, 2020
America has seen a fair share of colonial-era and confederate statues be toppled by protesters. Despite the inability to change history itself, the protesters have still targeted statues across the country.
One incident in Virginia left a man fighting for his life when protesters toppled a statue on the man’s head.
That incident was caught on video.
BLM Protester fighting for life after statue lands on his head at Trending Views