This is called backpedaling. Emmanuel Macron made known his desire to maintain the Terrorism Museum-Memorial project near Paris “as he announced” in 2018, and which had been threatened with abandonment by the government of Michel Barnier, on Tuesday AFP Tuesday January 7 from a source close to the matter.
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the jihadist attack against Charlie Hebdothe Head of State saw on Monday the president and the director of the mission to prefigure this memorial, Henry Rousso and Elisabeth Pelsez, “and told them that he wanted the project to be maintained as it was. had announced,” this source told AFP, confirming a information from franceinfo. Historian Henry Rousso confirmed on X that the president had assured them “of his commitment to continue the project”, welcoming “good news for all victims of terrorism on this memorial day”.
Announced by Emmanuel Macron on September 19, 2018 during the universal commemoration for the victims of attacks, the project, estimated at 95 million euros spread over eight years, was to open its doors in 2027 in Mont-Valérien, in the commune of Suresnes, near Paris.
Victims’ associations outraged by the abandonment
But as L’Express wrote at the beginning of December, Matignon, when Michel Barnier was Prime Minister, had announced to those responsible for the prefiguration mission its abandonment, without prior consultation, invoking “budget cuts” to reduce deficits. Associations of victims of terrorism denounced an “unworthy” and “incomprehensible” decision. Since then, the Barnier government has been censored by deputies and the head of state seems determined to relaunch this project under the leadership of the new Prime Minister François Bayrou.
Paris prosecutor during the wave of attacks in 2015, François Molins also confirmed the “good news” of maintaining the project. “It should be brought to an end. And I hope that it will be, because it was well advanced. And we will continue to fight with all our energy so that it comes to an end,” he said. -he said on franceinfo. “It’s important, because this museum will be both a place of memory” but also “of culture, reflection and exchange”, and “therefore of pedagogy, around the values of citizenship”, he added. “I hope that it could also constitute an instrument of prevention in relation to all this terrorist risk.”