Macron Proposes Honoring Hundreds of Black and Arab Figures in French Public Spaces

The French head of state plans to honor a large number of black or Arab personalities linked to the history of the Republic and its heritage. "I would like there to be a form of call for collective contribution. And that we have 300 to 500 names and that we have this catalog by March and that we make names, statues out of them. Our history is the combination of all these stories," he explained in an interview with Brut. The idea is to rename certain streets or erect monuments in public spaces.

For Mr. Macron, it is necessary to do historical work to facilitate the issue of integration within the French population. In this context, he recalled that historian Benjamin Stora was about to submit a report to him on the memory of the Algerian War.

Certain parts of France’s history had sparked heated controversy last summer.

"I have sometimes been called a ’brute’ because I was against the toppling of statues. I don’t believe in cancel culture, I don’t believe in erasing what we are," he affirmed.

"But there is a whole part of our collective history that is not represented, there is a whole part of our history that speaks to our youth who are black, coming from Africa or overseas or Maghrebi and who have their heroes," the French president stressed.