The U.S. no longer represents the values of freedom therefore it should send the Statue of Liberty back to France, a Socialist French Euro-deputy demanded Sunday.
Raphael Glucksmann, of the Socialists and Democrats group, told a cheering convention of his Place Publique leftist movement how disappointed he is in the U.S. and why it should not keep what was originally a gift from France:
Give us back the Statue of Liberty.
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.
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 was unveiled in New York City’s harbour on October 28, 1886 for the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence donated by the French people to America.
It was designed by Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi and has since become an icon of freedom and of the United States itself.
France 24 notes Paris does have a far smaller copy of the statue on a small island on the Seine in Paris.
An early engraving depicting the Statue Of Liberty in New York, designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated to America on October 28, 1886. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Glucksmann has previously attacked President Donald Trump’s change of U.S. policies since his return to the White House.
He also took aim at Trump’s cuts to U.S. research institutions, which has already prompted a French government initiative to attract some of them 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,’” added Glucksmann.
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