A sculpture dedicated to an Algerian resistance fighter was vandalized just hours before it was unveiled in France at the weekend, amid a presidential campaign charged with anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric.
The monument to Emir Abdelkader, who resisted French colonisation in the 19th century, was commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron to mark the Muslim North African nation’s 60th year of independence and heal past wounds between the countries.
But hours before an inauguration event, the lower half of the steel sculpture’s silhouette was cut open, leaving the metal twisted.
Reacting to the incident, Mr Macron said: “The French Republic will not erase any trace or name from its history. It will not forget any of its works. It will not dismantle any statues.”
Mr Macron’s three main challengers in the election in two months – the hard-Right Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, and the Right-wing Valerie Pecresse – have all sought to present immigration and Islamisation as a threat to traditional French values.
Thierry Boutard, mayor of the central town of Ambroise that is home to the statue, said he was “outraged” and “ashamed” of those responsible for the vandalism.
“This is a day of harmony and unity and this kind of behaviour is unspeakable,” Mr Boutard told the French news agency AFP.
‘France’s worst enemy’
Officials pushed ahead with the ceremony despite the damage.
“The will of those who destroyed this sculpture will not mar the course of this day: those who wanted us to bow out have failed in their efforts,” Mr Bouard said.
Algeria’s ambassador to France Mohamed Antar Daoud, who attended the inauguration, condemned the attack as an act of “unspeakable baseness.”
Police said they opened an investigation into the incident.
Abdelkader, who was imprisoned in Ambroise for four years, led the struggle against the French invasion of Algeria in 1830.
Once dubbed “France’s worst enemy,” the scholar turned military hero is considered one of the founders of modern-day Algeria for his role in resisting France’s colonisation of the North African country.
