France marks bicentenary of Napoleon’s death

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte 200 years after his death on Wednesday on an anniversary that has been dragged into a heated national debate about “cancel culture”.

Macron called Napoleon “part of us” and said the relatively modest ceremonies organised in Paris to mark the occasion were an “enlightened commemoration”, not a celebration of his life. Speaking at the Institut de France, an academy set up by Napoleon to promote science and the arts, Macron listed some of the famed Corsican’s enduring contributions, while also mentioning the darker, blood-stained parts of his legacy.

“Few destinies have shaped so many lives beyond their own,” Macron said of the man who seized power in a coup in 1799 and died in exile on the island of Saint Helena in 1821 having briefly ruled over most of Europe.