French lawmaker wants Statue of Liberty back

PARIS — France should demand its Statue of Liberty back, in as much as the United States no longer exemplifies the values that inspired France to gift the statue, a French Euro-deputy said Sunday.

“Give us back the Statue of Liberty”, centre-left politician Raphael Glucksmann said at a congress of his Place Publique centre-left group.

“We’re going to say to the Americans who decided to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” he told cheering supporters.

“You have a gift that we gave you, but I guess you hate it.” So it will be OK here at home,’” he added.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in the New York harbour on October 28, 1886 to celebrate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence as a gift from the French people to America. It was the work of Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi.

There is a much smaller copy of the statue on a small island on the Seine in Paris.

A tireless defender of Ukraine, Glucksmann has been critical of President Donald Trump’s radical reversal of US policy on the war.

He also lashed out at Trump’s cuts to US research institutions, which have already led to an initiative by the French government to lure some of them to work in France

“‘If you want to fire your best researchers, if you want to fire all the people who, thanks to their freedom and their sense of innovation, their taste for doubt and research, have made your country the first power in the world, well, we’re going to welcome them.’”

Since Trump re-entered the White House in January, his administration has slashed federal research funding and pushed out hundreds of federal employees who conduct health and climate research.

Glucksmann also attacked the far-right leaders in France, whom he accused of being a “fan club” for Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading the president’s push to slash spending.