“A Heart Lying in a Pile of Ashes”; Reactions to Notre-Dame Fire
The Notre-Dame fire caused sorrow and distress to many people across Europe and politicians. On the other hand, inappropriate news coverage of this fire, which is referred to as a catastrophe, has sparked a wave of criticism. President Trump’s tweet also became controversial.
The flames have been extinguished, but the aftershocks of this fire continue. On Monday evening, April 15th, one of Paris’s main symbols fell prey to the fire. A number of world politicians expressed their condolences to the government and people of France regarding this fire.
French newspapers on Tuesday, April 16th published interpretations about this fire. The Catholic newspaper “La Croix” titled its article about the Notre-Dame fire as follows: “A Heart Lying in a Pile of Ashes”.
The newspaper Parisien spoke of the tears of Paris, this lady of France. Figaro named this event a “catastrophe” and the newspaper “Écho” used the title “The Tragedy of Paris” for its report.
International Reactions
Emmanuel Macron, President of France, on Monday evening April 15th, while expressing deep regret over this fire, announced that France would begin reconstruction and restoration work on this church at the first opportunity. Macron told reporters that this is what the people of France expect from their government.
Politicians from various countries around the world have also reacted to what has been called a cultural catastrophe.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, described the Notre-Dame fire as a painful event. Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government, quoted Merkel as calling Notre-Dame a symbol of France and at the same time a cultural symbol of Europe.
Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister, also said that the Notre-Dame fire has wounded everyone’s heart. He expressed solidarity with the emergency responders and French firefighters.
Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, with the publication of a post on Facebook, called Notre-Dame Church the “soul of Paris”.
Alessandro Gisolfi, spokesman for the Vatican, also referred to this church as a symbol and emblem of Christianity.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, also said that seeing images of the Notre-Dame fire shocked him. The UN Secretary-General expressed condolences with the people and government of France.
Criticism of News Coverage
The way some media outlets covered the Notre-Dame fire sparked severe criticism. For example, Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany from the Christian Democratic Party, sharply criticized Germany’s public television network ARD.
Laschet, by publishing a Twitter post, announced that while media outlets such as “Al Jazeera” and “Russia Today” were covering the Notre-Dame fire live, and while right-wing forces were busy spreading their propaganda lies, German state media were sleeping.
The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia further wrote that at a time when millions of people were engaged in news about the fire in one of Europe’s most important cultural symbols, ARD broadcast a program about animals.
Laschet also said that people had to resort to the American CNN channel to follow news of this fire.
Ulrich Deppendorf, former head of the Berlin studio of ARD, also criticized the network’s coverage policy of this news by publishing a Twitter post.
This came as officials of this network responded saying that news about the fire was covered in this broadcaster’s news programs, “Tagesschau” and “Tagesthemen”.
Trump’s Controversial Remarks
Donald Trump, President of the United States, by publishing a Twitter post, sparked criticism from many French people on social networks. In this Twitter post, Trump wrote:
“Seeing the images of the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral is really terrible for me. Maybe we could use water-dropping aircraft to put out the fire. But you have to hurry!”
One user in response to Trump’s tweet wrote: “Could you perhaps teach us French how to put out a fire? We French know nothing about this matter. Currently French people have gathered to put out the fire and are dying. But they have not achieved any results. From you, a powerful leader of the world, we beg you to help us!”
After that, it was said that Gérard Araud, French Ambassador to Washington, called Donald Trump “an idiot” for this tweet in his interview with CNN. However, the French ambassador denied this by publishing a Twitter post.
Gérard Araud wrote in this Twitter post: “Such a statement is not truthful. I only stated the position of French firefighters who believe that using a water tanker aircraft to extinguish the fire (given the intensity of water hitting the structures) could damage this building.”
