The Council of Paris gave the green light on Tuesday to the classification by the State of the Sacred Heart as a historic monument, despite the opposition of the Communists, yet allies of the mayor Anne Hidalgo, who denounced a "deep attack against the action Communards”.

Such a long wait: while the city began a campaign in 2011 to protect the 96 religious buildings belonging to it, it took eleven years for it to request the highest level of protection for the famous Montmartre basilica.

Sensitive subject for the left

With 11 million people each year, it is however, behind Notre-Dame, the second most visited monument of the capital, underlined in session Karen Taïeb, the heritage assistant.

But the subject is sensitive for part of the Parisian left, the history of the basilica being linked to the Commune, a bloody insurrectionary episode which began with the capture of cannons on the same site.

After the Commune was crushed in 1871, the conservative-dominated National Assembly declared its construction of public utility, completed in 1923 and ever since associated with the repressive “moral order” of the time.

"The culmination of this repression is the erection of this odious religious edifice on these deaths, which are estimated at nearly 30,000", declared the elected Communist Raphaëlle Primet for whom "this classification remains an affront to the memory of the communards”.

For the Insoumise Danielle Simonnet, the vote can even "be akin to the apology for the murder of the 32,000 communards".

Financial “great opportunity”

The elected LR Rudolph Granier accused them of "instrumentalizing history" and stressed that this classification was a "great opportunity for funding outside the City budget".

Because the classification as historical monuments will allow any work to be supported up to 40% by the Drac (Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs), against 20% previously, Taïeb told AFP.

"There is no question of forgetting the memorial part", she declared in session, stressing that the classified sector included the square Louise-Michel, "which bears the name of a major figure of the Commune" .

Anne Hidalgo's assistant recalled that she had decided to "put on hold the pursuit of the protection" of the Sacred Heart, which began in 2020 with the registration as a historical monument, so that the year 2021 is "fully dedicated" to the commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Commune.

The Ministry of Culture should validate "immediately" this request for classification, she told AFP.

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