London: French President Emmanuel Macron has stepped into a culture war over one of the country’s most famous historical figures, warning against judging the past with values of the present.
While predecessors have been wary to be associated with the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, Macron on Wednesday laid a wreath to mark the 200th anniversary of the emperor’s death and delivered a speech mixing blunt condemnation with unashamed praise.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, top, stand by the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte.Credit:AP
The former military leader is an increasingly controversial figure in France amid a global anti-racism reckoning.
Napoleon built the foundations of the modern French state but was also responsible for bloody wars and supported the reintroduction of colonial slavery in 1802.
“He could be the soul of the world and the demon of Europe,” Macron said.
“Napoleon, through his conquests, never truly worried about human losses. Since then, we have placed the value of human life higher than anything else.”
But Macron urged the French to “not give in to the temptation to look at history anachronistically – that is, to judge the past with the values of the present.”
Napoleon Bonaparte is one of France’s best-known historical figures.Credit:
Macron has been a vocal critic of cancel culture. He last year vowed to oppose “the erasing of history” via the removal of statues and memorials to historic figures as has occurred in Britain and some other countries.
The French President, who is facing an 2022 election challenge from the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, acknowledged Napoleon’s dark history and stressed he was “commemorating, not celebrating” the bicentenary.
Napoleon died aged 51 on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena, where he had been sent in 1815 following a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
Emmanuel Macron at Wednesday’s ceremony. Credit:Reuters
The centrist Macron has long had a personal interest in Napoleon but is striving to walk a tightrope between the left, which is increasingly reassessing the emperor’s legacy, and the right, which sees nothing unusual in it being celebrated.
Macron on Wednesday labelled the reintroduction of slavery a “betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment” but said Napoleon deserved his place in French history.
“Napoleon Bonaparte is part of all of us,” he said. “He’s part of us because as the myth of the man emerged, he became that part of France that conquered the world.
“We love Napoleon because his life shows what is possible, because his life invites us to take risk and to trust our imagination and fully be ourselves.”
Macron had faced demands to skip the bicentenary event but chose to lay the wreath at Napoleon’s tomb under the dome of Les Invalides in central Paris and then deliver his speech to school students.
Some campaigners have called for Napoleon’s remains to be removed from Les Invalides and returned to his family. The tomb attracts more than one million visitors each year.
Macron’s own Gender Equality Minister, Elisabeth Moreno, last month said Napoleon was a great figure in French history but also “one of the greatest misogynists”.
Macron said on Wednesday: “From where I stand, Napoleon is the man who gave existence to our organisation, our administration.
“He gave shape to the early sovereignty as it emerged from the French Revolution. And here, once again, we are not here to judge…whether Napoleon was a proponent or an opponent of the Revolution values.
“This is a debate that divided historians from the moment he passed, and continues to this day.”
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