French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that his country would combat racism and bigotry but would not let violent rioters destroy statues or “rewrite” France’s history.
“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,” Macron said, according to a translation provided by TIME. “But this noble fight is perverted when it turns into communitarianism, into a false rewriting of history.”
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
“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,” Macron continued. “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.” – READ MORE
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