PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron, in an unusual gesture on Wednesday, marked the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, the warrior-emperor who famously bequeathed France its civil code, among other major reforms, but whose legacy remains tarnished in the eyes of many.
Macron said Napoleon’s reinstatement of slavery was a “betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment.” But in his speech under the dome of the Institute of France, he said that “Napoleon is part of us” and France “must look our history straight in the eyes.”
With such distinctions, Macron refused to cede to those who would refuse any honor to Napoleon, who is among the most important figures of French history and adored by some members of the right. The timing works for Macron, who is expected to try to renew his presidential mandate in elections next year.
Macron later laid a wreath at the foot of Napoleon’s grandiose tomb at Les Invalides, a gold-domed monument and site of a military hospital.
