French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will fight against racism but it will not surrender its historic statues.
Macron made the comments on Sunday, and are available in a video translated by TIME.
“We will be inflexible when it comes to tackling racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination, and new strong decisions will be made to reinforce the egality of chances. But this noble fight is perverted when it turns into communitarianism, into a false rewriting of history,” Macron said.
“I tell you very clearly tonight my dear fellow citizens, the Republic will not erase any trace or name from its history,” Macron later added. “It will not forget any of its deeds or take down any statue. What we need to do is to look all together with lucidity on all of our history and all our memory.”