"This statue is meant to stay": despite legal action, Christian Estrosi intends to keep the Joan of Arc sculpture in Nice

"This statue is here to stay." As the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, held a ceremony on Friday, May 30, 2025, beneath the statue of Joan of Arc in front of the church of the same name, he uttered this far from insignificant phrase.

The tribute - on this day of Saint Joan of Arc - was indeed not anecdotal and resonated as a clarification. Since, for the record, the public order to supply the work is being challenged in court. Christian Estrosi thus delivered a clear and concise speech, hammering home his position while the Marseille Court of Appeal has not yet ruled on the future of the work (1). Debunked or not?

" Whatever the outcome of the dispute , I thank this mobilization which, behind André Barthe and Joachim Murat , has led this subscription [which aims for 170,000 euros but, for the moment, has reached a third of that (2)] to be able, if necessary, to replace the commitment ^{of the} institutions of our community to erect this statue, this work of art."

The mayor then invoked history: "There are those who say that Joan of Arc is not from Nice and that in 1431, Nice was not France. As if ^Nice were not profoundly French. As if we had not embraced all of its history, all of its mythology by becoming French, 150 years ago . I want to recall the first act of the people of Nice when they chose to join France and make Paris their capital: to erect the Notre-Dame church on the model of the cathedral of Paris because Mary is the patron saint of France. And so, when the people of Nice chose to embrace France, it was the first symbolic gesture they made."

Then, responding point by point to the other criticisms made: "There are also those who consider that looking at Joan of Arc is like seeing a saint of the Catholic Church and that in the name of secularism, we should not celebrate her. As if secularism were the hatred of religions and faith. As if a saint could not also be a great republican figure. There are those who find her too warlike, those who find her too feminine. As if an armed, powerful France, proud of itself and its history, was necessarily a belligerent France. And as if a woman could not carry a certain idea of ​​resistance and of France, arms in hand."

He continues, in the same tone: "Finally, there are those who see Joan of Arc as the standard-bearer of the extreme right. As if she belonged to them. As if the history of France belonged to them. I refuse to accept that she is the symbol of the extreme right; that would be to say that they have won the battle of ideas and values. In my opinion , the great lesson of Joan of Arc is not one of identity. She invites us to see ourselves as we are, in all our differences, to make the effort to overcome these differences, these oppositions, these hatreds, to recognize ourselves in something else."

"The mirror of French passions"

After the demonstration, the conclusion: "The truth is that Joan of Arc is all of these things at once. This is what makes her a faithful face of our country. Of its pride and its contradictions. Of this transcendence which makes that, despite everything, despite all the differences, France is France, united and unique. All these reactions say nothing about Joan of Arc but a lot about our time. (...) Instead of seeing the symbol of unity which can bring together Catholics, royalists, republicans, the French of yesterday and today, and beyond Catholics all religions, we focus on those who divide us. Well, not us. When I think of Joan of Arc, it is Jacques Chirac that I hear saying "Joan of Arc belongs to all the French." I will not leave Joan of Arc to one or the other. I make it a point of honor and a symbol, because Joan of Arc has always been the mirror of French passions." And that is an understatement: since then , the oppositions have crystallized, the debate going far beyond the purely legal aspect to skid happily into the symbolic.

1. In the first instance, the administrative court, seized by the prefect, had cancelled the order of 170,000 euros from the Missor workshop, without publicity or competition, for the monumental (7 tons) sculpture. The case is now in the hands of the Marseille Court of Appeal , which is due to consider it at the beginning of July. At the same time, seized by the opposition elected official Jean-Christophe Picard, the public prosecutor had opened a criminal investigation.

2. The former elected official and the aristocrat had launched a subscription to substitute private financing for taxpayers' money.