LONDON (UK) – Workmen began removing protective hoarding around a statue of Winston Churchill on Wednesday ahead of the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron. The monument was covered up during racial equality protests.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office said the uncovering was linked to Macron’s visit, which marks the 80th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s radio address to France after the 1940 Nazi invasion, broadcast from London by the BBC.
During a Black Lives Matter protest march 10 days ago, the plinth of Churchill’s statue outside parliament was daubed with graffiti that said “Churchill was a racist”.
Following the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, by protesters in Bristol, British authorities feared the Churchill monument was at risk of further damage.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, an admirer and biographer of Churchill, said it was “absurd and deplorable” that the monument should have been in any danger.
Churchill has been accused of expressing racist and anti-Semitic views and critics blame him for denying food to India during the 1943 famine which killed more than 2 million people.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field