French deputy asks for return of Statue of Liberty

PARIS: France should take back the Statue of Liberty because the US no longer represents the values that led France to offer the statue, a French Euro-deputy said on Sunday.

“Give us back the Statue of Liberty”, centre-left politician Raphael Glucksmann said at a convention of his Place Publique centre-left movement. “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,´” he told cheering supporters.

“´We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,´” he added. The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in New York City´s harbour on October 28, 1886 for the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence as a gift from the French people to America. It designed by Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi.

Paris does have a far smaller copy of the statue on a small island on the Seine in Paris. Glucksmann, a staunch defender of Ukraine, has strongly criticised President Donald Trump´s radical change of US policy on the war.