French centre-left MEP Raphaël Glucksmann has called on the United States to return the Statue of Liberty, originally donated by the French people on the centenary of American independence, because the US no longer represents the values that led France to offer the statue.
"Give us back the Statue of Liberty." Glucksmann said at the congress of his centre-left Place Publique movement. "We say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who have fired scientists for demanding scientific freedom: give us back the Statue of Liberty," he told the cheering supporters.
"We gave it to you as a gift, but you obviously despise it. So it'll be all right here at home." He added.
The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886, on the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence as a gift from the French people to America. It was designed by the Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi. But Paris has a much smaller copy of the statue on a small island on the Seine in Paris.
Glucksmann, a staunch defender of Ukraine, has sharply criticised President Donald Trump's radical change in US war policy. He also took aim at Trump's cuts to US research institutions, which have already sparked an initiative by the French government to attract some of them to work in France
"The second thing we'll say to the American people is, 'If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who have made your country a world-leading power through their freedom and their sense of innovation and their willingness to question and to explore, then we'll welcome them,'" Glucksmann continued.
Since Trump's return to the White House in January, his administration has cut federal research funding and sought to lay off hundreds of federal employees working on health and climate research.
Glucksmann also criticized far-right leaders in France, accusing them of being a "fan club" of Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is spearheading the president's efforts to cut spending.
euronews/ gnews.cz - RoZ
PHOTO - X France24
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