Letter from the French nobility to the President of the Republic following the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games

Mr. President of the Republic,

On behalf of all the members of the Association d'entraide de la Noblesse française and their families, and on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of French people who cherish the memory and existence of our country's aristocracy, I am writing to express what many French people throughout the country are feeling.

We discovered with great pain and surprise, on the evening of July 26, 2024, one of the tableaux of the Opening of the Olympic Games: at the windows of a Palace in the blood-red City, Marie-Antoinette or other noble women, decapitated, sang the revolutionary tune "Ah, ça ira!", while a ship carrying a radiant woman, raising her fist, passed on the Seine.

We found it appalling that in France, the land of equality, where the death penalty was abolished forty-three years ago, an artistic committee should find it worthwhile to evoke so cruelly and so joyously all the mass executions perpetrated in particular against the aristocracy. In its reprise, the song "Ah, ça ira" expressly refers to the hanging of aristocrats, associating this purge with the coming of fine weather. Was this really, more than two hundred years later, the message of fraternity that was to be delivered at this ceremony? What would Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who initiated the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, have said about this painting? Clearly, it's particularly paradoxical and inappropriate to shout "hang the aristocrats" during the opening of a world event recreated by an aristocrat.

Another paradox caught our attention: in a country that does so much to promote women's rights, was it right to present the beheading of a woman in such a positive light? Did the Palais de la Cité, where justice has been dispensed for eighteen centuries, really lend itself to this representation of unjust and arbitrary executions? The greatness of French justice could have been celebrated, but all we did was throw severed heads in the face of the world. One might rightly ask: could the sovereigns Felipe of Spain, Frederik of Denmark, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Philippe of Belgium, Henri of Luxembourg and Albert of Monaco really have tasted this reference to the execution of a European queen, most of them distant relatives? Is this the welcome and respect we give our guests today?

The results were not long in coming: while our members were expressing their amazement on social networks, many users were hurling insults and death threats at them. Despicable comments and dehumanizing insults demonstrated the profoundly racist nature of this hatred, which must be described as aristophobic. In this respect, we had already been warned, regularly suffering, even from public services, vexations, inappropriate remarks about our family names, disrespectful allusions and thinly veiled threats associated with revolutionary remembrance. Today, because of the impunity of these discriminations and because of this scene which celebrated the extermination of the aristocrats, the vexations have changed into calls to murder, published without any scruples on social networks. We therefore demand that French law, which guarantees security for all citizens regardless of their origin, put an end to this impunity.

In the words of Thomas Jolly, the ceremony was meant to "bring people together". Were the murders of a unifying nature? Was their festive evocation respectful of the minority we represent? We French of aristocratic descent are citizens of the French Republic. While we represent a great cultural, patrimonial and economic force, we have been treated as if we no longer existed, as if the Terror had completed its sinister work. Did we make a mistake when we thought that aristocracy and Republic could get along and coexist?

And yet, from the Roman Republic to the Republic of the Provinces-Unies of the Low Countries, via the medieval Italian republics, European aristocracies have lived in many republics, served them well and still do. We are the heirs of a condition that does not depend on material reality, but on the transmission of a cultural heritage and conformity to an ideal of life.

Like our European ancestors, our families rendered immense service to the country, regardless of whether a king or president was in charge. Our capital was liberated from Nazi occupation by General Leclerc de Hauteclocque. Every legislature, politicians from the aristocracy are elected by the French people to represent them in the National Assembly. On July 14, 2023, you had before you Odile de Vasselot, one of the last living members of the French Resistance, elevated to the dignity of Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit in 2024 and Commander of the Legion of Honor in 2021. You also awarded this Légion d'honneur to Henri d'Anselme in 2023 for his courageous intervention during the Annecy bombing.

Why, in spite of this, is aristocratic origin enough for a person to be hated and called to death in France in 2024? Mr. President of the Republic, what more is needed to put an end to this hatred based on the myth of a past systemic oppression whose alleged crimes have long been denounced as immensely exaggerated, if not imagined with malicious intent, by historians of all parties? Why, despite all the services rendered, do we pretend that the memory of the Terror does not exist in our families? Must we tell our children that the Republic rejects us, does not assume our defense, and that in France, aristophobia is licit?

On July 26, 2024, our country put on a show for the world to see that it was proud to have murdered its aristocrats. What can we say to the French of aristocratic origin who have placed their trust in the Republic? We cannot believe that you approved this terrifying staging. This is why, Mr. President of the Republic, we wish to express our profound indignation, and ask you to ensure that all expressions of hatred towards us disappear, along with all the lies and impunity that contribute to feeding it.

Only when our country has healed the wound created by the Revolutionary Terror, inflicted as early as 1793, when the ink on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was barely dry, can true social peace be sought. Until this work is done, extremists will continue to dream of cutting off the heads of their leaders, to the great misfortune of our country.

Yours sincerely

Count de Sèze

President, A.N.F.