A Communist Party figure, Joëlle Greder reacts as a member of the National Order of Merit to the initiative of the municipality of Montauban to erect a bronze statue of Napoleon on the Emperor’s alley. In a letter addressed to the president of the society of members of the Legion of Honor, he explains why he will not attend the official inauguration this Thursday 4th November.
This Thursday 4 November at 5 pm the official inauguration of the statue of Napoleon will take place, installed by the municipality of Montauban on the Emperor’s alley to remember that it was Bonaparte who created the Tarn-et-Garonne department. , in a senatus-consultum promulgated on November 4, 1808, thus offering Montauban, where the French emperor then had many supporters, the status of a prefecture city.
A ceremony that will be avoided by Joëlle Greder. This figure of the French Communist Party sent a letter to the president of the association of members of the Legion of Honor of Tarn-et-Garonne “as a member of the National Order of Merit” to explain the reasons for his absence.
This is a very bad message for all these women fighting against sexist discrimination and violence against women. The fact of having created the department of Tarn-et-Garonne cannot cancel this terribly retrograde balance.
“Mr. President of the Society of Members of the Legion of Honor 82, on Thursday 4 November I will not go to the inauguration of the statue of Napoleon. Our association aims in particular to transmit the values of the Republic to the younger generations. What messages do we send when we raise a statue to the one who restored slavery, to the one who waged imperial wars that caused thousands of deaths, to the one who wrote a very misogynistic Civil Code that we women are still suffering the consequences of?
I think it’s a bad message when we know the deep wounds that our slavery and colonial past leaves on young people from immigration or the descendants of slaves in overseas territories. This is a very bad message for all these women fighting against sexist discrimination and violence against women. The fact of having created the department of Tarn-et-Garonne cannot cancel this terribly retrograde balance. It is therefore because I deeply disagree with this initiative that I will not take part in this inauguration. “
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