It’s generally considered poor form to ask for a gift back, but that hasn’t stopped French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, who believes the Statue of Liberty should head back to France. Here’s why.
Nearly 140 years after the Statue of Liberty was gifted to America from France, French lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann has suggested that it’s time for the green lady to come home.
Indeed, the center-left member of the European Parliament has made a compelling argument for the staue to head back to France, stating that the US no longer represents the values that led France to offer the statue in the first place.
“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty’,” said Glucksmann, adding: “We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home.”
The Statue of Liberty – originally named La Liberté éclairant le monde (Liberty Enlightening the World) – was originally conceived by French politician Edouard de Laboulaye and designed by French artist Auguste Bartholdi (1834 – 1904).
It is seen as a symbol of liberty, justice and democracy, and was formally delivered to the American minister in Paris on 4 July 1880. Its official unveiling was in New York City’s harbour on 28 October 1886, to mark the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence.
The poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus is engraved on a bronze plaque inside the pedestal’s lower level. The second half – and most quoted segment – reads:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Considering the Trump administration is seeking to conduct mass deportations of people allegedly in the US without documentation and is mulling over travel restrictions, those last lines from the sonnet – seen as a symbol of hope and opportunity for a better life in the US – don’t ring as strongly these days…
Glucksmann has also strongly criticized Donald Trump’s cuts to federal funding for research institutions, cuts which could work in France’s favour should the government attract US researchers to work in France.
“The second thing we’re going to say to the Americans is: ‘If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who, through their freedom and their sense of innovation, their taste for doubt and research, have made your country the world’s leading power, then we’re going to welcome them,'” Glucksmann said on 16 March.
While addressing his party, Glucksmann also criticised far-right leaders in France, accusing them of being a “fan club” for Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk.
Musk’s popularity has been sliding like the market value of Tesla, as “Tesla takedown” protests have seen demonstrators gather outside dealerships in the US.
Trump recently stated that people protesting against Tesla should be labelled domestic terrorists, as the White House organised a media event designed to bolster Musk’s electric car company.
The president stated that those demonstrating against Musk or targeting Tesla showrooms were “harming a great American company”, and anyone using violence against the electric carmaker would “go through hell”.
Hardly Enlightening the World…
SOURCE: EURONEWS
