A French politician has called on the US to give the Statue of Liberty back after suggesting that some Americans “have chosen to switch to the side of the tyrants.”
Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament who represents the small left-wing party Place Publique, made the comments at a rally on Sunday.
“Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” said Glucksmann. “It was our gift to you. But apparently, you despise her.”
The statue was a gift of friendship to America from France.
Inaugurated in 1886, it represents Libertas, the Roman liberty goddess, bearing a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand with the date of the US Declaration of Independence.
Broken shackles lie underneath the statue’s drapery, to symbolize the end of all types of servitude and oppression.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back at Glucksmann.
“My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them 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,” she said.
Glucksmann responded in a 10-part thread on X addressed to the American people, acknowledging, "I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy."
But, he said, that was a different version of America, one that "fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them;" one that "welcomed the persecuted and didn't target them."
"It was far, so far from what your current President does, says, and embodies," he wrote.
He specifically cited the Trump administration's "betrayal of Ukraine and Europe," as well as its treatment of scientists.
Glucksmann said his comments were meant as a wake-up call.
"No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty," he wrote.
"The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone. And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe."
The Statue of Liberty would be hard for France to recall, since it is owned by the U.S. government, according to UNESCO.
It's also a national monument and a major tourist attraction.
