French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, telling his countrymen the controversial former emperor "is part of us," Reuters reported Thursday.
Bonaparte overthrew the nascent Republic before expanding France's empire in bloody conflicts across Europe.
Victories in battles spread Bonaparte's power across Europe before his defeat to the British at Waterloo.
The warrior-ruler and master administrator created France's penal code including the administrative system of prefets and Lycee high schools that exist today.
But despite his contributions to France, his legacy remains tarnished in the eyes of many.
In a short speech Wednesday, Macron raised the historical figure and myths including the darker reality of Napoleon's power over France between 1799 and 1815.
The president said he was "commemorating" and not "celebrating" Bonaparte's legacy and that his reinstatement of slavery was a "betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment."
But in his speech under the dome of the Institute of France, Macron said "Napoleon is part of us" and France "must look our history straight in the eyes," The Guardian reported.
Numerous past leaders have shunned honoring one of France's most divisive rulers. Bonaparte was to some a military tactician and a national hero. To others he was a warmonger and enslaver.
"Few destinies have shaped so many lives beyond their own," Macron said of the emperor who seized power in a coup in 1799 and died in exile on the island of Saint Helena in 1821, according to The Telegraph.
"Napoleon could be both the soul of the world and the devil of Europe," the French president said.
