On February 9, 1934, the French Communist Party organized a march to the Place de la République as a counter-protest to fascist riots, an action that helped lay the groundwork for the alliance of left-wing parties known as the Popular Front. In the years since, the square has regularly served as the rallying point for trade-union marches, as well as demonstrations in favor of women’s rights and other progressive causes. But, despite these left-wing associations, those with very different visions for France’s future have also tried to claim the space as their own. The Nazis stationed their troops in Napoleon III’s barracks during their occupation of Paris in the Second World War. In 1958, as France attempted to maintain control of its Algerian colony, the right-leaning General Charles de Gaulle presented a draft of a new constitution, from the base of the Marianne statue. After the attack on the offices of the satirical journal Charlie Hebdo by Islamist militants, in 2015, the square became a gathering place not only for champions of free speech and national unity but for defenders of the secular republic against religious fundamentalism. In the visual tour of the Place de la République below, viewers will have a chance to step through French history and glimpse moments of protest and conflict through the decades.
The filmmakers and journalists Trevor Snapp and Roopa Gogineni have been working on a documentary about the square for the past several years. A wave of mostly peaceful protests were held there this past weekend, but political battles continue over who or what exactly caused last week’s riots—and over which candidates in next April’s Presidential elections stand to gain from them. “It feels like there is really struggle over what this square is for, and what the French state should be,” Snapp, whose photographs helped make the 3-D model, said. Many fear that the country is lurching rightward, toward the National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen and her promise of law and order, but, Snapp observed, “April is a long way away.”
