She’s become a beloved and unmissable landmark for the United States, but now French politician Raphael Glucksmann is demanding that Lady Liberty should be returned to France.
Despite holding strong associations to the fabric of New York, and America as a whole, the Statue of Liberty is indeed actually a French creation, and even has a sister statue located in Paris.
The statue was first proposed all the way back in 1865, when a French political intellectual and anti-slavery activist named Edouard de Laboulaye suggested it be created to mark the centennial of independence in the United States, as well as the country’s friendship with France.
The statue was designed by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, before being delivered to the US on June 17, 1885. It was finally erected on Bedloe’s Island in 1886, where it has remained ever since… Until now?
Amid political tensions between the US and Europe, Glucksmann, a centre-left politician in France, claimed that the US should ‘give [France] back the Statue of Liberty’.
Speaking at a convention of his Place Publique centre-left movement, Glucksmann continued: “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’.”
Glucksmann’s comments came after US President Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports coming into the US – a move which prompted the European Commission to respond with tariffs of its own against American products.
The president then doubled down by threatening a 200 percent tariff on all ‘wines, champagne and alcoholic products’ arriving into the US from France and other European countries.
Amid the trade war, Gluckmann has also taken issue with Trump’s approach to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which involved cutting US military aid to Ukraine, as well as his decision to cut federal funding to research institutions.
The politician suggested France would be willing to welcome more than the Statue of Liberty, as he indicated the country could offer opportunities to researchers who had lost their jobs.
He said: “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’.”