While Emmanuel Macron is trying to woo Donald Trump on his plans for Ukraine, a politician from another French party has demanded that the U.S. return the Statue of Liberty, claiming that Americans have come to “despise it.”
Raphaël Glucksmann, from the leftwing Place Publique party, and a leading figure in the European Parliament’s Socialists group, said at a conference on Sunday that America had sided with “tyrants,” meaning Russia. This was likely in response to the temporary shutting off of intelligence sharing and security assistance to Ukraine.
Speaking in particular on the Statue of Liberty, which was gifted to America almost 140 years ago, on the centenary of the French Revolution, he added:
We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home.
Place Publique members were “cheering” as Glucksmann delivered this demand, according to Le Monde.
But in the U.S., the message appears primarily to have succeeded in prompting laughter, with many on social media inviting Glucksmann to ‘come and get it.’
Others have viewed Glucksmann’s rhetoric as a response to Trump’s plans for mass deportations of illegal migrants, given Lady Liberty’s pedestal note: “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” This prompted further mockery, including from American sportsman and Trump-backer John Rocker, who suggested that the U.S. should send France a new statue representing open-border governance.
Even the White House had a jibe, with Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt reminding the “unnamed, low-level French politician … that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now. So they should be very grateful to our great country.”
The French politician’s scorn extends far beyond Trump’s administration, and has this month even seen him accuse Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen of being “on the side of the adversaries of the interests of France and Europe.”
