a project driven by the spirit of national unity

On the still smoking ruins of Notre-Dame, President Macron promises the French to restore the cathedral in five years. This April 16, 2019, the day after the tragedy, he speaks to them of a feat within the reach of our country but, beyond the technique, it is above all a political horizon that he draws. “It is up to us to find the thread of our national project”, philosophers the head of state.

On the evening of the fire, the president immediately understood that, in a country that doubts itself, this project can bring unity. Because Notre-Dame is not just any monument. In fact, during the debates held in the following weeks in Parliament, the deputies and senators demonstrated their attachment to Notre-Dame.

A recent book edited by sociologist Nathalie Heinich (1) analyzes the mechanisms behind overcoming divisions due to the emotion aroused. The researchers decipher the values ​​requested during the exchanges, in particular the identity dimension of a monument which is “a part of France”.

Opportunity, on the left, to highlight in this work not the hand of God but “the best of the mind” of the human beings who built it. Nathalie Heinich underlines that, from the evening of the fire, Jean-Luc Mélenchon exalted on his blog the idea of ​​a common good shared between believers and atheists. “Notre-Dame belongs to no one, or else to everyone,” affirmed the leader of La France insoumise.

The Public Establishment, a task force for Notre-Dame

The law for the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame passed on July 16, 2019 regulates national subscription and creates a public establishment responsible for managing the project. The idea was the subject of controversy and, above all, will provoke the wrath of the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester who takes a dim view of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, special representative of the president since April 24, taking the powers of this war machine.

Because it is nothing else, the soldier himself will confirm when interviewed by the deputies in November, after the creation of the Establishment. “I feel very comfortable in command of this task force,” lance, martial, general. A few moments later, questioned about the comments of the chief architect Philippe Villeneuve in favor of reconstructing the spire of Viollet-le-Duc identically, he declared to the deputies that he had “already explained that he keeps his mouth shut.” The expression provokes a tsunami in the cozy world of culture and an official reaction from Franck Riester.

A relatively consensual political object

Despite this fanfare start, the difficulties will in reality quickly disappear. Beneath an overplayed grumpy style, the former chief of staff of the armed forces is a political savvy. In private, the man is humble about his mission. “My line of conduct is to make everyone work together in the service of a cause that goes beyond us, that of returning this cathedral to the world,” he thus confided to The Cross in 2020.

Elected deputy in 2022, Jérémie Patrier-Leitus (Horizons) worked alongside him for almost three years and salutes a man who succeeded in “embody the construction site”. Georgelin gave “a unity of view” while the multiple interlocutors, the town hall, the cultural departments, the prefecture, the diocese, could each pull in one direction.

The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, whose relations with President Macron were poor at the time, was at the heart of several financial tensions. And then she doesn't want to hear about a “gesture of modernity” on the square where she is leading the renovation project. But the preparation for the Olympic Games, then the success of the organization of the event, will bring those interested together. Ultimately, for five years, the restoration of the cathedral remained a relatively consensual political object.

On the ground of secularism and relations between power and the Catholic Church, the resurrection of Notre-Dame has sometimes played out in pain. In the message he sent to the French the day after the fire, Emmanuel Macron made the cathedral a national symbol, but did not mention its spiritual vocation or the Catholic community. Then archbishop of the capital, Mgr Michel Aupetit reacted sharply on Sud Radio: “It is still the Catholics who keep Notre-Dame Cathedral alive, which is not a museum. »

Church and State on good terms

To physically mark his territory, the archbishop will obtain authorization from the prefect of police to be able to celebrate a mass there, in a very small group and wearing helmets, on June 15. At the same time, left-wing deputies are fighting in the hemicycle so that the diocese does not have a seat on the board of directors of the future public establishment.

Year in and year out, here too, everything will be more or less back to normal. The Notre-Dame construction site can, with hindsight, appear as a demonstration of collaboration in good intelligence between the Church and the State. The diocese is represented within the Establishment, as it was within the jury set up by the Paris town hall to select the development project around the cathedral. Jean-Louis Georgelin as well as his successor, Philippe Jost, are two fervent Catholics and great servants of the State, sensitive to the expectations of those responsible for the premises and the demands of the world of culture and heritage.

If no last minute grain of sand comes to halt the system, secular, cultural and religious ceremonies should accompany the reopening of the monument. Saturday December 7, the President of the Republic will speak on the square. In the same place where, on April 15, 2019, public and religious authorities together witnessed the rescue of Notre-Dame.

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