A French politician has urged that the U.S should return the Statue of Liberty, claiming that certain Americans “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants.”
Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament for the minor left-wing group Place Publique, made the remarks during a protest on Sunday.
“Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” Glucksmann demanded. “This was our gift to you. But it appears you dislike her.
The statue was a gift of friendship to America from France.
The Statue of Liberty was inaugurated in 1886 and depicts Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, holding a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left with the date of the US Declaration of Independence.
Broken shackles lie beneath the statue’s draperies, representing the end of all forms of servitude and injustice.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Glucksmann.
She said “My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now, so they should be very grateful to our great country,”
Glucksmann then responded in a series of posts on X and Instagram”.
Glucksmann emphasised that his gratitude to the US “heroes” that fought against the Nazis in WWII is “eternal,” before making a contrast with US President Donald Trump’s recent attempts to negotiate a settlement between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Trump’s public spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin. It helped the resistance and didn’t attack Zelensky,” he wrote.
“It is precisely because I am petrified by Trumps betrayal that I said yesterday in a rally that we could symbolically take back the Statue of Liberty if your government despised everything it symbolizes in your eyes, ours, and those of the world,” said Glucksmann.
“No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty. The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone,” he said.
“And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.”
