Napoleon: how to pay homage to controversial figures in history?

Audio 19:30

A fresco depicting Napoleon Bonapart, in Ajaccio, France.

© Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP

By: Romain Auzouy

21 mins

French President Emmanuel Macron is participating, this Wednesday, May 5, 2021, in the day dedicated to the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon I.

Commemorations that are controversial as the Emperor divides.

Considered by some to be one of the greatest statesmen that the country has ever known, for others he embodies an autocratic power marked by the reestablishment of slavery.

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Hence the question: should we commemorate Napoleon?

How to explain this cleavage 200 years after his death?

What parallels with other controversial figures in history?

With our guest

Patrice Gueniffey

, historian and director of studies at EHESS.

Author of “

Napoleon and de Gaulle, two French heroes

”, published by Perrin. 

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  • France

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