Just for once, France doesn’t surrender: Hollande says Non to a special coin for Waterloo
IT was the clash that finally lifted the threat of Napoleon’s imperial ambitions from Europe and brought peace after decades of war.
The Battle of Waterloo also marked a new era for France, freed from the yoke of Bonaparte tyranny.
But it seems that the French don’t see it that way, even after 200 years. The defeat of Napoleon’s army outside a Belgian town by Britain, Prussia and allies from Northern Europe still appears to be something of a sore point.
In an extraordinary intervention, France has blocked plans for a two euro coin to commemorate Wellington’s 1815 victory over Napoleon. President Francois Hollande claimed the Belgian project would be a ‘symbol that is negative’ and undermine eurozone unity.
Now the Belgians have scrapped plans to have the commemorative coin produced next month to avoid a diplomatic row.
Hollande’s government argued the battle was still a bad memory for the French people. A Brussels source said: ‘Belgium have withdrawn the project because it would not be in their interest to cause upset to the French.’ Last night British politicians said France’s reaction to the coin – and Belgium’s subsequent cave-in – was ‘absurd’.
Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough, said: ‘I know the euro is a useless currency but what I didn’t know the French still could not cope with the fact they were defeated. It is absurd, I would have thought the French would have been quite keen to have got rid of an emperor. The French should grow up a bit.’
MP Philip Davies added: ‘It shows how thin skinned and small minded the French are, how desperate Hollande is politically and how weak the Belgians are. What a shower.’ A draft design of the coin was submitted to the Council of the European Union by Belgium in February this year.
It was expected to go into production next month but France objected to the coin last week, claiming in a letter to the Council of Europe that producing the coin would ‘risk… engendering unfavourable reactions in France’.
The Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, stopped the advance of Napoleon and sent him into exile for a second and final time.
In the one day of fighting there were around 55,000 either killed, wounded, or missing in action. However, the battle ushered in more than 50 years of peace.
While the proposed design of the coin has not been revealed, it is understood to have featured a battle scene. The UK has issued a £5 coin to mark the bicentenary.