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Napoleon’s legend is vivid and as divisive as ever

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Fidel Castro he once said more people know Napoleon Bonaparte because of the brand that bears his name, Austerlitz, than because he was the most famous on the battlefield of the French emperor. On the 200th anniversary of his death, Napoleon’s legacy lives on in a more lasting way than Castro gave him.

Two weeks ago, 20 French generals retired he called on the armed forces to save the nation Ever since they named the dangers of radical Islam and the civil war. Their appeal received the enthusiastic support of far-right politician Marine Le Pen.

From a historical point of view, this event served to recall the prolific tradition of military intervention in French politics. It began in 1799 with the coup d’état of Napoleon. His nephew Napoleon III succeeded him in 1851, Boulangism in the 1880s. Philippe Pétain’s Vichy regime In the 1940s and in the military uprisings of 1958 and 1961.

The military coup is a strange idea of ​​modern France. Among the sectors of the population, the drive to find a greater savior of life, capable of overcoming French divisions and reviving the national spirit, has persisted since the Napoleonic times.

Charles de Gaulle embodied this impulse. Some of his supporters believe he is also the president Emmanuel Macron When he defeated traditional French political parties in 2017 and became the nation’s youngest head of state since Napoleon. Le Pen, who will challenge Macron for the presidency next year, he will play the same role as the far right.

However, just as Napoleon was a very unifying figure in his life, his inheritance divides the French today. Opinion polls are consistently assessed As one of the two or three greatest historical figures of France. But Jacques Chirac hated him. He ruled out 2005 Centenary of Austerlitz memories as president. Alexis Corbière, left-wing politician, he says France should not have celebrated two hundred years of its death “because it is not a celebration of the grave of the republic.”

The arguments about Napoleon serve as a representative of the cultural wars that take over France. Élisabeth Moreno, Minister of Gender Equality and Diversity in the Macron government, condemned him as “one of the greatest misogynists.”

Moreno probably had in mind Napoleon’s civil code of 1804, which specified that wives owed obedience to their husbands. Or maybe he was thinking Germaine de Staëlcentury author, who once asked Napoleon to describe the best woman. He replied, “The one with the most children.”

In general, de Staël was not impressed with Napoleon. Compared to the strict Jacobin who directed the Terrorism of 1793-1794, he is called “Robespierre on horseback.”

Recently, they have embraced campaigns for racial justice Napoleon’s decree 1802, which aimed to reintroduce slavery in the French colonies eight years earlier.

Admirers of Napoleon prefer to see the reformist administration he created in him national central bank, Institute the school system and the prefects who control it departments. In this sense, it laid the foundations for the centralized and technocratic state that defines France today.

Criticism underscores the darker side of Napoleon’s rule. This includes police repression, manipulated plebiscites and endless wars of conquest were distorted, leaving the French national territory in 1815 smaller than before it came to power.

In some parts of continental Europe, Africa and Latin America, Napoleon has served as an inspiration for national liberation movements. But he is remembered as an invader in Russia and Spain, and for the British a tyrant runs the risk of controlling Europe. Two hundred years later, the Napoleonic legend is alive and well.

tony.barber@ft.com

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