Notre-Dame: The debate over the rebuilding splits France

Of "all together" and "in national unity," as President Emmanuel Macron wishes to rebuild the fire-damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Instead, France debates who pays - and the motives of large donors.

These "rich bastards," as a subscriber scolded on French breakfast television. (An overview of the donations of the billionaires can be found here.) He is not alone with this opinion. In a much more moderate tone, the Paris daily Le Monde wrote: "Too much is too much."

This meant among other major donors Bernard Arnault, who according to the US magazine "Forbes" third richest person in the world. He has pledged 200 million euros for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame. Is he allowed to do that? Yes. But should he? Is this something indecent? Does he profit in the end?

Arnault, the 70-year-old boss and owner of luxury goods group LVMH, does not bother with such questions: "In many other countries, we would have been congratulated," Arnault told the LVHM shareholder meeting Thursday morning, "it is rather depressing even in France is criticized if you do something in the public interest. "

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But was that really? Will he not only see his name engraved as a donor on the future portal of Notre-Dame? Anyway, Arnault, who otherwise avoids the limelight, suddenly stands in the middle.

"We should come back to reality," reminds him and his ilk the yellow-vamped leader Ingrid Levavasseur. She criticized "the inaction of large corporations in the face of social hardship, while at the same time being able to organize insane sums for Notre Dame". That sits. Are the yellow vests not supposed to register an imbalance?

That's exactly what the head of France's CGT, the largest union in terms of membership, said: "Now get the idea that there are billionaires who have a lot of money and put 200 million, 100 million dollars on the table with one click, as shown by the inequality in this country which we demonstrate on a regular basis, "says CGT boss Philippe Martinez to the radio station Franceinfo. Billionaire Arnault regretted promptly "small-mindedness and envy of the zeitgeist".

So the flames spread in Notre-Dame

The fire broke out according to the fire department on Monday at 18.50 clock in the attic of the cathedral Notre-Dame. The roof is currently scaffolded for cleaning - from the scaffolding went out of the fire well.

The flames spread wildly, according to the fire department. One decisive reason: the 1300 oak trees built into the space between the roof. On this wooden scaffolding is the more than a hundred-meter-long roof of the cathedral made of 210 tons of lead. Lead melts at temperatures of just over 300 degrees and is flammable. The combination of wood and lead offered the fire always new food.

The pinnacle, which was located in the center of the nave, collapsed on Monday night around 8 pm as a result of the big fire. The roof was largely destroyed. However, the two characteristic bell towers were preserved. For nine hours, 400 casualties temporarily put out fires, then the fire was defeated.

What he is not entirely wrong for the top French economist Gilbert Cette from the University of Aix-Marseille: "The arguments of the yellow vests and unions are absurd social adversity is always there But that can not mean that we spend nothing more for the arts" says Cette the SPIEGEL.

For economists, it is depressing that the yellow-vests in France are currently succeeding in propagating a notion of progress based on a very narrow materialistic view. "We would all still be in the Stone Age, if we had never allowed others wealth," says Cette. Wealth, as ultimately symbolized by Notre Dame for the whole of society.

The dispute reaches into Parliament. Next week, the government wants to present a new donation law specifically for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame. Citizens should be able to deduct donations up to 1000 euros to 75 percent from the tax. So far, only 66 percent went.

As far as this new regulation is concerned, even the parliamentary opposition is likely to agree. However, she criticizes the overly generous tax regime for cultural donations in general. Through them, according to members of the conservative party The Republicans, the treasury lost almost one billion euros in tax revenue in ordinary years. This loss could grow in 2019 by a high donation for Notre-Dame still.

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And elsewhere, the money for Notre-Dame creates strife - and envy. "Not a penny of citizens, town halls or other public budgets should get Notre-Dame," says French regional historian Odon Vallet, "but Americans and big business should donate to Notre-Dame while we take care of all the cultural treasures of France. "

Vallet alludes to dozens of cathedrals and hundreds of churches in France, whose money is in desperate need of refurbishment. For the historian, this malady is symbolic of the uprising of the yellow vests: "We also have to think of rural France, for the yellow vests speak and feels abandoned and abandoned in many places," says Vallet.

For President Macron, that does not make life any easier: "The French say that their lives are unjust, that they are quite willing to make their own efforts, but only if they all do," the Paris government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye said in the evening the fire disaster said. It is precisely this feeling of profound injustice in the country that many ignore that is also shaping the debate on Notre Dame.