INFO FRANCEINFO. Emmanuel Macron finally decides to maintain his major project for a museum-memorial of terrorism on Mont-Valérien in Suresnes

Abandoned for reasons of savings under the Barnier government, the project was reaffirmed by the president, after mobilizing stakeholders and victims’ associations.

Emmanuel Macron finally decides to maintain his major project for a museum-memorial of terrorism on Mont-Valérien in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine), franceinfo learned on Tuesday January 7, 2025 from a source close to the matter. On this day of commemoration of the January 2015 attacks, the Head of State assured those who have been carrying out the project for four years that he wanted to maintain his “investment” and support the project. “as originally designed”.

After years of work, almost ten million euros of expenditure to erect this museum-memorial in Suresnes on Mont-Valérien, everything stopped just after the censorship before the holidays in December 2024. Advisors to Michel Barnier then announced to the president and director of the prefiguration mission Henry Rousso and Elizabeth Pelsey that their ambition – which is nevertheless that of the Head of State – costs too much, in full deficit: 95 million euros, over several years and on the budget of several ministries. But leading sources believe that another reason lies behind this slowdown: the outcry from institutions commemorating victims of the Shoah and the resistance.

Last year, these institutions were opposed to the installation of this site on Mont-Valérien, fearing that the memory of terrorism would make that of the Second World War disappear. The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, was never enthusiastic about the project, according to these same sources. She is close to Pierre-François Veil, son of Simone Veil and president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah, therefore opposed to the construction of the museum on Mont-Valérien. In the minister’s entourage, Franceinfo is reminded that there was “a consensus to call for a reorientation of the project”.

The work has not yet started. But, if the head of state keeps his commitments, the opening will take place in 2027 with a museum which will exhibit thousands of pieces, judicial seals or donations from victims’ families, such as kippas of children killed by Mohammed. Merah in Toulouse, tables, chairs from the bar “La belle team” with bullet holes from November 13. This renunciation would have been difficult to assume on this day of commemorations.