French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour — a Jew — rushes to the defense of France’s unsurpassed Christian icon, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. He has an op-ed in Le Point today about the proposed wreckovation of Notre-Dame de Paris. A reader translates it into English as follows:

Dear fellow patriots,

For months, a plan aiming to deconstruct the cathedral of Paris under the pretext of restoring it has been in the works. Yesterday, it entered its implementation phase.

As a lover of our civilization’s splendor, I cannot remain silent in the face of this appalling endeavor aiming to completely alter the world’s most visited structure, the center of gravity of French Christendom and the symbol of our nation.

The morning after the fire, what should Emmanuel Macron have decided to do? Have the cathedral rebuilt identically, on the inside as on the outside, and let the Historic Monuments commission accomplish its noble mission. In place of this, driven by madly uncalled-for pride, he launched a competition for modernizing the cathedral, and created an opaque structure led by a general—an expensive and extremely complicated project—intended to satisfy his whims.

The Notre Dame issue was then hidden under a seal of absolute secrecy. Until we learned that a new plan had been born, aiming to radically upend the cathedral’s interior. Emmanuel Macron is so pleased with it that he has invited its principal designer, a progressive priest with woolly fantasies, to the Elysee Palace. The president of the Republic is trying to pass off Notre Dame’s enthusiasts as backward-looking squares. But since when has modernity consisted of disfiguring an extraordinary masterpiece in order to replace it with an idiotic phantasm?

Two years on from the fire, our cathedral continues to perish, carried away by the flames of political correctness. “Emotional spaces,” “ecological chapel,” “journeys of initiation,” “abstract painting”: in a blaze of corny and imbecilic abstractions, wokeism’s demons are wreaking havoc on Paris’ most moving treasure.

The pilots of this project evince a skewed and perverted understanding of History. They see in Notre Dame a layer cake where each leader may leave his or her mark, “whatever the cost.” They take faithfulness for a lack of daring. There is one reason for all of this: they do not love France. They believe, as Emmanuel Macron says himself, that there is no French culture. They encourage everything that is able to deconstruct the heart of our civilization.

It is not yet too late to do the right thing. Emmanuel Macron must give the order to cancel this project, as quickly as possible. And, if by chance he persists in allowing the cathedral of Paris to be disfigured, when I am elected president I solemnly vow that Notre Dame will again become Notre Dame. I make this intention a permanent part of my campaign platform.

Long live our History, long live Art and, above all, long live France.

Here is a link to the French version:

Éric Zemmour : « Que Notre-Dame redevienne Notre-Dame » – Le Point

UPDATE: In case you missed it, and are wondering what the big deal is about Eric Zemmour, here is Christopher Caldwell’s terrific profile of the “deeply insightful and deeply disturbing” Zemmour. 

UPDATE.2: I updated the text above because a couple of commenters say that there is evidence that Zemmour practices his faith.

Also, I should have linked to the news story to which Zemmour is responding. The French government panel of experts have voted to go ahead with the Archbishop of Paris’s wreckovation plans to turn the cathedral into a kind of Woke Catholic Disneyland.