the character is divisive,

Ouest France.

He has his worshipers and his slayers.

Everyone has their representation of Napoleon.

Emmanuel Macron seeks the right tone to commemorate Napoleon

The speech that the Head of State is due to deliver today for the bicentenary of the Emperor's death is eagerly awaited.

He does not want to fall "neither into hagiography nor into repentance".

"To commemorate is not to celebrate", we assure you at the Élysée.

Le Figaro

the victorious general, the First Consul, the Emperor, is part of the history of France, and in what way!

Just think of what was the life of this little Corsican officer who became the master of Europe through his military genius, his energy and his daring.

Civil Code, Council of State, Legion of Honor, high school, gendarmerie…, France's debt to it is immense,

Le Figaro.

Has he committed any crimes?

Alas, slavery is one of them, like the death of the Duc d'Enghien, useless and brutal.

Mistakes, mistakes?

Surely.

Is it for this,

that it should be thrown into darkness, in the light of the only contemporary canons of "anti-racism" and "feminism"?

Le Figaro

Along with Joan of Arc, de Gaulle, Napoleon is one of our universally known figures. If in Paris beautiful souls are moved, the whole world remains fascinated by this destiny. We must therefore commemorate it, yes, celebrate it, of course. This does not prevent the critical work of historians.

Like the great nation that it is, France cannot turn its back on its history and on one of its most illustrious representatives,

La Dépêche du Midi.

The taller a man is, the more his dark side is.

And it would be dangerous if not absurd,

, to erase from the collective memory of the acts committed two hundred years earlier, were they radically contrary to our current republican principles.

the poison of Bonapartism

By commemorating this Wednesday the death of the" little corporal ", Emmanuel Macron seeks to take advantage of the mythical figure of the Emperor.

Napoleon was not only the author of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, which put an end to the French Revolution, but also the one who reestablished slavery in the colonies in 1802, marking France with iron for future generations.

(…) Its dictatorship was a military dictatorship, therefore absolute,

L'Huma: conquer, administer, monitor, punish, muzzle the press.

After the great revolutionary overthrow which enlightened the Enlightenment and the world, he left France bloodless, ready to offer itself again to all the oligarchies.

acute napoleonite

the figure of the emperor has become, over time, a popular avatar of the illuminated.

who has never heard that all crazy people think they are Napoleon?

This archetype has survived the ages.

The Emperor does better than Jesus, Joan of Arc or Louis XIV,

Le Monde: "he is by far the most popular delirious figure," confirms historian Laure Murat.

(…) And if the enlightened ones chose him so much as an avatar, she insists, "it is because before being Napoleon, he was Bonaparte, a small captain without dynastic legitimacy who reached the highest step of the power when he was not an heir of royal blood. Thanks to him, any ambitious can allow himself to dream of an extraordinary destiny ".

The almighty general personifies megalomania.

Le Monde, “

the profiles of imperial madmen are alike: they are authoritarian, angry, capricious, invulnerable and fix their eyes on an inevitably glorious horizon.

In short, they challenge the gods.