Paris town hall wants to rename avenue Bugeaud, marshal of the colonial era

The Paris town hall wants to rename an avenue in the west of the capital after Marshal Bugeaud, a figure in the colonization of Algeria by France in the XNUMXth century, but the LR mayor of the XNUMXth arrondissement is opposed to it.

Announced by PS Mayor Anne Hidalgo in the Quotidien show on November 22, this measure will be the subject of a symbolic wish at the next Paris Council in mid-December, before a deliberation by the summer of 2024, announced Thursday memory assistant Laurence Patrice.

Transmitted to AFP, the wish provides for the avenue located between Porte Dauphine and Place Victor-Hugo to take the name of Hubert Germain, former resistance fighter, companion of the Liberation and minister who died in 2021.

The town hall justifies this change of name by the “discredit which today strikes the memory of Robert Bugeaud” and the “eminently harmful role which he played in the history of these two countries”.

In Algeria, in the years 1830-1840, he was "guilty of what would today be qualified as war crimes", his army using "murderous and inhumane methods", underlines the town hall.

Even in Paris, the marshal committed "exactions", "in particular during the repression of the republican insurrection of 1834", underlines the town hall.

Questioned about it on TMC, Anne Hidalgo announced her intention to "rename" the avenue, while explaining that she was against the generalization of this practice.

“We obviously need the mayor of the XNUMXth century to accompany us,” she added.

But contacted by AFP, the district mayor (LR) Jérémy Redler said he was "against the idea of renaming streets", very subjective according to him.

“It’s a political error to get into this gear,” believes the elected official, who also highlights the administrative “horror” that such a change represents for local residents.

Mr. Redler, elected mayor at the beginning of November following the election to the Senate of his predecessor Francis Szpiner, claims to have "not been consulted at all" by the central town hall.

Since 2001, only five denominations have been removed from the streets of Paris, "in exceptional cases" where they "clashed our common values", indicates the town hall.

“I am not at all for debunking the statues, I prefer that we add and complete the story with explanations,” explained Anne Hidalgo on Quotidien.

In 2003, his predecessor Bertrand Delanoë renamed rue Alexis-Carrel, after the French surgeon who was a supporter of Nazi Germany.