In Rouen, arms pass around a statue of Napoleon in exile – Liberation
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The statue, under renovation since July 2020, is at the heart of a controversy between the socialist mayor of Rouen, who would like to replace it with a female figure, and a part of the right which cries out to debunk.
Without his Napoleon, he seems naked, the monumental base in the place of the town hall of Rouen (Seine-Maritime). The rider has been lacking for more than a year, being renovated in a workshop in Yvelines, but he does not lack company. Young people ride their skates whose wheels crunch on the flagstones, their eyes riveted on the steps which serve as a springboard or a ramp to multiply the figures. The monumentality of the town hall or the Saint-Ouen abbey does not seem to impress them too much. And Napoleon’s base is only a support, a corner of shade.
However, in Rouen, it has been a big topic of discussion since the beginning of autumn. Debate provoked by the proposal of the socialist mayor, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, to replace the statue of the emperor with that of a female figure, suggesting, ” personally “, Gisèle Halimi. A year ago, the idea had not made too many waves, until students of the right-wing union UNI expressed their discontent at the foot of the empty plinth and part of the right-wing press, even of far right, decides to make this statue the symbol of a form of “Cancel culture”, unbolting or the “Culture has awakened”.
Le Figaro these fustiges “Neofeminists who impose their ideology in the public space”. Current values denounce “You …