OUR DRAMA | The French national drama told …

From the little bridge, a small crowd watches the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in flames. The silence is overwhelming. From the Left Bank, in a processional caravan, a group of women sang in chorus: "Hail Mary, full of grace". An old woman holds Victor Hugo's novel in her hands, almost like a talisman. Six young people holding hands raise their prayers so that firefighters can save this body whose life is in danger of death. The cover of Libération sobs "Our Drama", the national drama.

Messages from social networks take the form of genuine condolences for the loss of a loved one. They accumulate after the fall of the needle. Without it, the Notre-Dame cathedral is a monument amputated, even decapitated. A priest interprets the catastrophe as a foretaste of Good Friday, the pbadion of Christ: the building symbolizes his body martyred by the flames. The body of the nation, Catholics, those who live in the city, those who visit it … A body that is reduced to ashes at the time of Lent.

The president and the mayor are present. The political clbad is also shocked and expresses its consternation in a slightly modified register, closer to that of a Republican secularism: that of a community that ensures the loss of part of its material history. and symbolic at a time. Emmanuel Macron reinforces the metaphor: "It is sad to see how a part of all French is burned". Anne Hidalgo adds: "This afternoon, all the Parisians and the French cry this emblem of our common history." Jean-Luc Melenchon exclaims "Paris is on fire!" and evokes the cathedral as the place where the French were in all circumstances and whatever their faith. For others, this represents another tragedy that hurts French relations with their heritage. A call to the great national collection to repair the damaged body is already underway. "We will rebuild Notre Dame" announces Macron of the island of the City always in flames. That's what history deserves, he adds.

The news of the saved objects – among them the most important ones: the St. Louis tunic and the crown of thorns – relieves people in mourning. When the news transcends the security of the two towers of the Notre-Dame cathedral, discouragement gives way even worse, the structure of the cathedral is secure. Part of the French identity too.

CONICET-Ravignani-UBA / UNLu Institute. Visiting Professor of EHESS (Schools of Higher Studies in Social Sciences)