Paris City Hall wants to rename Avenue Bugeaud, marshal of the colonial era, at the heart of several memorial controversies

The town hall justifies this measure by the “discredit which today strikes the memory of Robert Bugeaud” and the “eminently harmful role which he played in the history of France and Algeria.

The Paris town hall wants to rename an avenue in the west of the capital after Marshal Bugeaud, a figure in the colonization of Algeria by France in the 19th century, but the LR mayor of the 16th arrondissement is opposed to it. Announced by PS Mayor Anne Hidalgo in the show Daily on November 22, this measure will be the subject of a symbolic wish during the next Paris Council in mid-December, before a deliberation by the summer of 2024, announced Thursday, December 7, the memory assistant Laurence Patrice . Transmitted to AFP, the wish provides for the avenue located between Porte Dauphine and Place Victor-Hugo to take the name of Hubert Germain, former resistance fighter, companion of the Liberation and minister who died in 2021.

“Eminently harmful role”

The town hall justifies this name change with the “discredit which today strikes the memory of Robert Bugeaud” and the “eminently harmful role that he played in the history of these two countries”. In Algeria, in the years 1830-1840, it was “convicted of what would today be described as war crimes”, his army employing “murderous and inhumane methods”underlines the town hall.

In 2020, government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye had already estimated France Inter that we could ask ourselves the question of renaming avenue Bugeaud in Paris. And this is not the first time that the marshal is at the heart of a memorial controversy. This was also the case for his statue located on the Rohan Rivoli wing of the Louvre, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

“Political error”

Even in Paris, the marshal committed “exacts”, “particularly during the repression of the republican insurrection of 1834”, underlines the town hall. Asked about it on TMC, Anne Hidalgo announced her intention to “unbaptize” avenue, while explaining that he is unfavorable to the generalization of this practice. “It is obviously necessary that the mayor of the 16th century accompanies us”, she added. But contacted by AFP, the district mayor (LR) Jérémy Redler said he “against the idea of ​​renaming streets”, very subjective according to him.

“It’s a political error to get into this gear”, believes the elected official, who also highlights the administrative “horror” that such a change represents for local residents. Jérémy Redler, elected mayor at the beginning of November following the election to the Senate of his predecessor Francis Szpiner, claims to have “not consulted at all” by the central town hall.

Since 2001, only five denominations have been withdrawn from the streets of Paris, “in exceptional cases” where they “clashed with our common values”indicates the town hall. “I am not at all for debunking the statues, I prefer that we add and complete the story with explanation,” explained Anne Hidalgo on Quotidien. In 2003, his predecessor Bertrand Delanoë renamed rue Alexis-Carrel, after the French surgeon who was a supporter of Nazi Germany.