French MEP Demands Return of Statue of Liberty from US
French Member of the European Parliament Raphael Glucksmann has called on the United States to return the Statue of Liberty, which was donated to the US by the people of France in the nineteenth century, France 24 reports.
He argues that Washington no longer embodies the values for which Paris donated the statue.
‘We will say to the Americans who have chosen to side with tyrants, to the Americans who have fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’’ Glucksmann said at the congress of his centre-left movement Place Publique.
The MEP also noted that the United States no longer seems to value the Statue of Liberty.
‘We gave it to you, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,’ Glucksmann added.
France 24 clarifies that the French MP is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and has rarely expressed criticism of the sharp change in US policy towards the war under President Donald Trump.
The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbour on 28 October 1886 to mark the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence. It was a gift from the French people to America and was designed by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi.
As The Gaze reported, in early March, French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that Paris would provide intelligence to Ukraine after the United States stopped doing so. ‘If this is a tool for negotiations and pressure on the Ukrainians, it is very difficult for them and morally repugnant,’ he said.