Notre Dame de Paris

The Occitan Nation Party deplores the partial destruction of Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, an immense loss for the heritage of humanity, Europe and the French Republic. This dramatic event cannot leave any Occitan indifferent, even if he or she recognizes himself or herself neither in the Catholic Church nor in the French nation.

Notre Dame de Paris will undoubtedly be rebuilt with the help of the French State, the citizens and companies of that State and the whole world. The Occitan Nation Party stands in solidarity with this emotion and enthusiasm.

However, the Occitan Nation Party wishes to recall its attachment to another heritage, enshrined in the Constitution of the French Republic, that of the indigenous languages of France, known as "regional", including the Occitan language. Indeed, this linguistic and cultural heritage is also seriously threatened and its survival is precarious. Far from protecting it, the French State is working to eradicate it, in particular the Minister of Education with the High school reform, without so much as raising eyebrows in the media.

Our Occitan country lost its sovereignty in the Middle Ages and was imposed the language of the winner, French, at the end of a merciless war of conquest and destruction of our heritage, a war that is ignored in the history books of the French Republic. The eradication of our language would complete this ethnocide.

The Occitan Nation Party claims as a first step towards historical reparation, the transformation of the French Republic into a "Girondine" republic that would respect and promote France's linguistic and cultural diversity.

It shares the legitimate emotion of all those who mourn a wounded cathedral and their fit of enthusiasm for its reconstruction.

However, it denounces the colonial trap of one-way solidarity and demands reciprocity: that the French State take concrete measures to show that it truly respects Occitania, its language and culture as well as those of all the peoples of France.