On a busy street in the centre of Montauban in southern France, with roadworks blasting the pavement nearby, there is a spot earmarked for a new statue of France's last national dictator.
Once Europe's biggest problem, Napoleon Bonaparte is still posing a dilemma for France, 200 years after his death in exile on the Atlantic island of St Helena.
Looks a bit on the cheap clickbait dogwhistle style of journalism. Last dictator ... was he any more empowered than the kings followed, was a contemporary of or who followed him in France.
Cannot see any genuine value in statues per se. Perhaps an extension or grant to a hospital, university, library would be more fitting and far more functional.
I suppose this what it takes to sell magazines and such like.
Would have thought that by now it was fairly obvious he was not a saint. Possibly even quite unpleasant. But then assassination attempts and wars tend to dull ones sense of fun.
I was wondering if anyone had actually read beyond the dogwhistle headline. I thought the views of the mayor of Montauban might have been of interest.
Not to mention the sculpture itself. I think it's fair to say that Lucy Williamson is not a historian
Don't forget Charles X who attempted to push the clock back...fortunately, neither he nor Louis XVIII could take away Napoleon's reforms...
>"France's last national dictator."<
It seems that the BBC is conveniently forgetting Vichy and Petain, but then its only wrong when Napoleon does it.
>"his decision to reinstate slavery after it had been abolished in France"<
The funny thing is it was largely Britain which either restored or allowed for the continuance of slavery in the French colonies. Napoleon only (somewhat) pragmatically decided that where slavery had not been abolished that it would continue. That's not to say that, had it been possible, he would have reestablished slavery throughout the colonies, to compete with the British. (And also that the great hero Toussaint basically reestablish slavery in Haiti.)
https://www.napoleon-series.org/research/miscellaneous/c_NapoleonToussaintSlavery.html
Hi John, no comment was just thinking that we hadn’t spoken for ages, so it’s just nice to see your name pop up.
The Harris monument being erected in London, the "civilians whose children and other family members were burned by bombs" might well be thinking that those that sow the wind risk reap the whirlwind.
It again proves the success of Boney propaganda and his cult - that they cannot find another topic for a statue, maybe a tree would be nice to remind us to stop destroying the world.
Also one should consider what emotion such statues would evoke, how descendants of former slaves feel - or civilians whose children and other family members were burned by bombs.
when Bomber Harris got one, why not Boney?