A "builder, a strategist and a legislator" but also "faults", such as the reestablishment of slavery: Napoleon Bonaparte "is a part of us", affirmed Emmanuel Macron by drawing a portrait on Wednesday "in chiaroscuro" of the Emperor, an essential figure in the history of France, who died 200 years ago.
On May 5, 1821, the Emperor breathed his last at the age of 51 far from his family and his country on "the sinister rocks" of Saint Helena, a lost island in the South Atlantic where the British had it. sent into exile after his last defeat at Waterloo.
Two hundred years later, Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the foot of his tomb, under the majestic dome of the Invalides, at 5:49 p.m., the exact time of his death.
A few minutes earlier, the Head of State gave a speech at the Institut de France to "look our history in the face".
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Responding to those, especially on the left, who criticized the decision to commemorate Napoleon, Emmanuel Macron called not to “give in” to “the temptation of an anachronistic trial, which would consist in judging the past with the laws of the present”.
France is "a country of a long time" which "advances without erasing, without denying or denying, but by constantly reinterpreting, by recognizing, by seeking to understand".
"Between two legends: the golden legend and the black legend"
For the Elysee Palace, this position must be adopted on all memorial issues, in particular on France's action in Algeria and Rwanda, the two delicate issues which Emmanuel Macron took up.
Before him, his predecessors refrained from expressing themselves on Napoleon since Georges Pompidou celebrated in 1969 the bicentenary of his birth in Ajaccio.
Speaking at the Institute before Emmanuel Macron, the historian Jean Tulard, specialist of the Corsican Emperor, detailed how, for 200 years, the stories on Napoleon swing "between two legends: the golden legend and the black legend" . His defenders celebrate the military strategist and the initiator of the "modern state", while his slayers note the hundreds of thousands of deaths from his military campaigns and his decision to reestablish slavery.
“Eagle and ogre, Alexander and Nero, incarnation of freedom as much as of police repression, he could indeed be both
the soul of the world
described by Hegel in Jena and the demon of Europe”, Emmanuel summed up. Macron.
On the positive side, he praised the leader who "gave shape to our political and administrative organization", in particular by creating the Civil Code, the prefects, the great bodies of the State and the grandes écoles.
"Betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment"
In the troubled post-Revolution climate, "Napoleon knew how to embody order", approved the Head of State, saluting the one who knew "to give a lasting form to the brilliant revolutionary intuition of national sovereignty". "Napoleon also understood that he had to constantly seek the unity of the country", he added. In an ode to individual worth that resonates with his own political credo, he also celebrated a life of “will”, “freedom”, “taste for the possible” as well as an “invitation to take one's risk”.
In the dark side of the emperor, Emmanuel Macron denounced the reestablishment of slavery, adding that "the Second Republic repaired in 1848 this betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment".
He also criticized a conqueror who "never cared about human losses", stressing that since then France has "placed the value of human life above anything, in wars or in pandemics" , also a reference to the management of Covid-19.
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This condemnation of the reestablishment of slavery was particularly awaited in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, where many inhabitants are descendants of slaves. On the political level, the debate on the advisability of commemorating Napoleon remained muted, marked by some critics of elected officials from the left, who regret the absence of celebration of the 150 years of the Commune by the president, while on the right some would have liked to give more scope to this anniversary.
Some elected officials but also nostalgic for the empire gathered in the morning in front of the Invalides and at the foot of the Vendôme column in Paris, to salute the one who "gave so much to the world" according to Marine Le Pen. Testifying to the fascination that the Emperor still arouses, the bicentenary is the occasion for the release of a multitude of new works. Announced as one of the stars of the cultural season, “The Napoleon exhibition”, which retraces the major stages in his life, will welcome the public at the Grande Halle de La Villette from May 28.
