The White House has firmly rejected the suggestion from a French politician that the Statue of Liberty should be handed back to Paris, reports The Times.
Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European parliament and co-founder of a small left-wing party in France, told his supporters on Sunday that the gift given by France to America almost 140 years ago should be returned.
“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’” he said, to cheers and whistles. “It was our gift to you. But apparently you despise her. So she will be happy here with us.”
In response, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said France should remain “grateful” to America for the country’s intervention in the Second World War.
“My advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,” she said, referencing American efforts in expelling the Nazis from France. “They should be grateful.”