Pourquoi la mairie de Bordeaux refuse de débaptiser l’avenue Thiers
This Friday, March 18, the Louise Michel Collective is calling for a rally at the Bastide to rename Avenue Adolphe Thiers, after the name of the “butcher” of the Paris Commune, an insurrection whose 151and birthday. He is campaigning for consultation, while the town hall refuses to change the street names. She prefers to put on educational plaques for the most problematic cases, such as those of Bordeaux shipowners involved in the slave trade.
In 1877, the mayor of Bordeaux went to the avenue de Paris, between the stone bridge and Cenon, the name of Adolphe Thiers, “no doubt hoping that his notoriety as head of state could erase the sinister political course that sinuous of an ambitious, authoritarian and above all criminal man”.
150 years after the Paris Commune, bloodily repressed by the man who then headed the provisional government of France at Versailles, inhabitants of the Bastide asked Pierre Hurmic in these terms to backtrack: to name the avenue, but also the school and the eponymous gymnasium located in the neighborhood. To, why not, rename them – “Louise Michel, Flora Tristan, the Paris Commune or…” another, guilty they.
After several actions required last year, including a petition which to date has gathered nearly 800 signaturestheir collective, baptized Louise Michel, calls for a new gathering at the start of avenue Thiers, this Friday, March 18, the anniversary date of the start of the Parisian insurrection.
“Massacre of People”
Because after having written on October 11, 2021 to the mayor of Bordeaux and to the members of the municipal council, this collective was surprised on March 15 on Twitter to still not have received an official response. The arrest was relayed in particular by the historian Ludivine Bantigny, who asked Pierre Hurmic “to comment on a large avenue in Bordeaux, a city so concerned with history, can still bear the name of a mass murderer”.
“The City has always responded to the requests received on this question”, we reply on the town hall side, who forwards us a letter signed by Stéphane Gomot, municipal councilor responsible for memory and heritage, and translated on January 7 to two of the members of the collective of inhabitants – Bertrand Gilardeau and Emmanuelle Bourgeois, the latter claiming never to have received it.
Unknown at this address
In this letter, the elected official salutes their “commitment and the actions planned for memorial work”. But above all, he informs them of Pierre Hurmic’s refusal to rename Bordeaux roads and public spaces:
“Beyond the practical concerns of changing address for local residents, the municipality has chosen to do educational work by installing explanations under the names of certain men and women. This work on the explanatory plaques has already been started on some tracks (in particular on those paying homage to shipowners or Bordeaux merchants who were involved in the triangular trade and the slave trade) and it will continue. »
Including for avenue Thiers, indicates to Rue89 Bordeaux Stéphane Gomot. In his letter, the latter points out, maintaining that “for public facilities, and more particularly for schools”, the municipality “shares with you the need for a name that carries positive values, even that is a source of pride for children. “.
“Also the municipality and the viography commission (Editor’s note: municipal body in charge of attributing names to the roads and equipment of the City) have favorably examined any satisfactory request from the entire educational community for the change of name of the Thiers school. »
three halves
The municipal councilor specifies that to date, “no request” has reached the town hall. Emmanuelle Bourgeois agrees that the collective to rename Avenue Thiers has not yet managed to establish contact with the school management, and has not approached parents so that they may eventually reach their claim.
But this lawyer recalls that this condition set by the town hall, also in force for other contested school names, such as Paul Bert, also pinned in the Guide to decolonial Bordeaux co-written by the association PourquoiPas33, support of the Bastidien collective) , “has no legal basis”.
Also, Emmanuelle Bourgeois invites the town hall to take the lead in changing the name of the school, especially in the case of Adolphe Thiers. The collective indeed underlines that “outside of any moralism, the man would be accused today of pedophile crimes” – nicknamed “three-halves president”he had married his mistress’s 15-year-old daughter and had an affair with her youngest.
“Cancel culture”?
The inhabitants of the Bastide concerned therefore continued their mobilization to inform the population about the history of this controversial head of state, but also about parts of the history of France – the revolutions of 1848 and the Commune -, which tend to disappear from textbooks. Emmanuelle Bourgeois affirms that they will continue to demand consultation to rename this avenue:
“If this does not succeed, because it would be very annoying for traders, for example, and it is argued, we could hear it. But we should at least be able to discuss and think about it. It is surprising for us that a left-wing town hall does not question this denomination and refuses a democratic debate. And this while even other town halls, like Niort, undertook to rename streets Thiers. »
That of Bordeaux fears the trial in “cancel culture” what would the reaction fringes do to him?
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