“Staying the course is my motto”: Emmanuel Macron visited the site of Notre-Dame de Paris on Friday, four years after the fire which ravaged the cathedral and a few hours before the decision of the Constitutional Council on its reform of retreats.
“Artisans, restaurateurs, workers and companions, all the teams on site assured us again this morning: we will be there in 2024!” Tweeted the Head of State after his visit. “It’s titanic,” he added, thus confirming the objective of an official reopening, for worship and visitation, at the end of 2024.
On the spot, in remarks which had a particular flavor at a time when he must try to relaunch his five-year term hampered by the crisis around pensions, he estimated that “it is when you set a course with an ambition that you can move “.
The president had given himself five years to rebuild the building, the spire of which collapsed on April 15, 2019.
“I think I can tell you today that we will be able to get there,” said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, his special representative for this reconstruction. “It has never been easy but we have triumphed over all the obstacles,” he added, presenting the progress of the work to the president.
In a helmet and construction suit, the latter, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, greeted apprentices, craftsmen and business leaders on the forecourt and in the nave, who led this colossal task, telling them that they could “be proud” of the work accomplished.
He then went up to see the completion of the reconstruction of the “stool” which will support the new spire, the installation of which will begin at the end of the month.
“Thank you, you can be proud. Good luck and we’re not giving up for the months to come,” Macron told workers on the “stool”.
The laying of this 80-ton base will be completed on Saturday, four years to the day after the fire. The cathedral will therefore be able to find its spire, rebuilt identically to the previous one – in oak, stone and lead -, designed by the 19th century architect Viollet-Le-Duc and culminating at 96 meters in height.
On Twitter, Emmanuel Macron then said he was “in favor of a reflection on the creation of a museum” dedicated to Notre-Dame, “because it is a part of our national destiny, of our History, because it still has so much to show”. According to the Elysée, he shared this position with the construction teams.
After three months of social and political crisis, the Constitutional Council must render its decision on Friday around 6:00 p.m. on the highly contested pension reform which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old.
Shortly before the arrival of the president, demonstrators had installed a red banner of the CGT, demanding retirement at 60, and launched smoke bombs from a river boat passing on the Seine at the foot of the cathedral.
04/14/2023 18:04:34 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
