French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned against making “false promises” on reparations for slavery as he endorsed the symbolic repeal of France’s centuries-old decrees that governed the practice in French colonies.
Macron spoke on Thursday at the Élysée Palace at an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Taubira Law, a French legislation named after former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira that recognized the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity in 2001.
The French President reportedly stressed to his audience that the “immense question” of reparations should be addressed but warned against any “false promises” on the subject. According to France 24, Macron indicated that he had not made a final decision on reparations.
“We must have the honesty to say that we can never fully repair this crime, because it is impossible. You will never one day be able to put a number on it, or find words that would bring this history to a close,” Macron said, per Le Monde.
The French President also expressed during his speech that he fully endorses the symbolic repeal of the Code Noir, a decree passed by King Louis XIV in 1685, two years after the death of Colbert, that defined the rules of slavery in France’s colonies. The text imposed a series of conditions for slaves and harsh punishments for those who broke its terms. While France has long since abolished slavery over a century ago, the codes were never formally rescinded.
“There remains a text that should never have survived the abolition of slavery, much less endured through the centuries to the present day — a text that has never been formally repealed by the Republic, to the point where this oversight has almost become a fault,” Macron said, referring to the Code Noir.
“The silence, or even indifference, that we have maintained for nearly two centuries regarding this Black Code is not an oversight, but has become a form of offense, a challenge to those who have guided us since 1789,” he added at another part of his speech.
Macron’s remarks and endorsement of the symbolic repeal of the Code Noir came hours after a French parliamentary commission unanimously approved a bill to repeal the centuries old text. According to the French Parliament’s public broadcaster, LCP, the bill will be on the parliament’s agenda on Thursday, May 28.
Per the broadcaster, the soon-to-be discussed bill also calls for the submission to parliament of a government report “listing the provisions derived from colonial law that are still in force” and analyzing their “contemporary consequences,” particularly “in terms of discrimination and racism throughout French society.”
An amendment to the bill introduced by lawmaker Nadège Abomangoli of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party states that the the report must assess “the prominence given to the history of slavery, the slave trade, and their abolition in school curricula.” Additionally, it calls for the report to include proposals to strengthen said education and suggest “the creation of memorial sites and centers for historical research” on the matter.
Read the full article here