“Notre Dame is our history, it's our literature, it's our imagery,” Macron told his people. “It's the place where we live our greatest moments, from wars to pandemics to liberations. ... I'm telling you all tonight — we will rebuild this cathedral together. This is probably part of the French destiny."<doc-sep>French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to restore Notre-Dame Cathedral within five years in a televised address to his nation - shaken by the fire that swept through the historic structure. A colossal fire caused the spire of the edifice in Paris to crash to the ground and wiped out centuries of heritage. In his televised address, Mr Macron again promised the cathedral would be restored. 0:00 Interior of fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral 00:00 / 00:00 Share Share on Twitter Share on Facebook "We will rebuild the cathedral even more beautifully within five years," Mr Macron said in an address to the nation a day after the blaze. Mr Macron expressed relief that "the worst had been avoided" in a fire that risked bringing the entire spire down and left France in shock over the damage to a building described as the soul of the nation. “It is up to us to change this disaster into an opportunity to come together, having deeply reflected on what we have been and what we have to be and become better than we are," President Macron said. "It is up to us to find the thread of our national project.” EPA POOL But he also warned: "Let us not fall into the trap of haste." Mr Macron said that the dramatic fire had brought out the best in a country that has been riven with divisions. "What we saw last night in Paris was our capacity to mobilise and to unite," the 41-year-old leader said in the solemn address from his office in the presidential palace. 0:00 Macron vows to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral: Ben Lewis 00:00 / 00:00 Share Share on Twitter Share on Facebook France had over the course of its history seen many towns, ports and churches go up in flames, he said. "Each time we rebuilt them," he said, adding that the cathedral inferno had shown that "our history never stops and that we will always have trials to overcome." 'Our history never stops' Mr Macron's defiant comments indicated he wants the reconstruction of the cathedral to be completed by the time Paris hosts the Olympic Games in 2024. "We will rebuild the cathedral even more beautifully and I want it to be finished within five years," Mr Macron said from the Elysee Palace. "And we can do it." Mr Macron said that the dramatic fire had brought out the best in a country riven with divisions and since November shaken by sometimes violent protests against his rule. "What we saw last night in Paris was our capacity to mobilise and to unite," Mr Macron said, hailing France as a nation of "builders". "Our history never stops and that we will always have trials to overcome," he said. EPA POOL 'Saved in half an hour' Images from inside the cathedral Tuesday showed its immense walls standing proud, with statues still in place and a gleaming golden cross above the altar. However the floor was covered in charred rubble from the fallen roof and water while parts of the vaulting at the top of the cathedral had collapsed. Junior interior minister Laurent Nunez told reporters at the scene that work to secure the structure would continue into Thursday, allowing firefighters access to remove remaining artifacts and artworks. He said the building had been saved within a critical time window of 15-30 minutes by a team of 400 firefighters who worked flat out throughout the night. Getty Images Though "some weaknesses" in the 850-year-old structure had been identified, overall it is "holding up OK", he added. President Donald Trump relayed Americans' "condolences" to Mr Macron over the fire, the White House said. French fire chiefs had earlier dismissed as "risible" comments by Trump that the fire should be tackled with water bombers, saying this risked destroying the entire edifice of the cathedral. So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019 The Paris fire service said that the last remnants of the blaze were extinguished Tuesday, 15 hours after the fire broke out. Renovation work on the steeple, where workers were replacing its lead covering, is widely suspected to have caused the inferno after the blaze broke out in an area under scaffolding. Investigators interviewed witnesses overnight and began speaking with employees of five different construction companies that were working on the monument, said public prosecutor Remy Heitz. "Nothing indicates this was a deliberate act," Heitz told reporters, adding that 50 investigators had been assigned to what he expected to be a "long and complex" case. EPA POOL 'For future generations' A public appeal for funds drew immediate support from French billionaires and other private donors as well as from countries including Germany, Italy and Russia which offered expertise. French billionaire Bernard Arnault and his LVMH luxury conglomerate, rival high-end designer goods group Kering, Total oil company and cosmetics giant L'Oreal each pledged 100 million euros or more. Support came from outside France as well, with Apple chief Tim Cook announcing the tech giant would give an unspecified amount to help restore a "precious heritage for future generations." But experts had warned a full restoration will take many years. "I'd say decades," said Eric Fischer, head of the foundation in charge of restoring the 1,000-year-old Strasbourg cathedral. EPA POOL Thousands of Parisians and tourists watched in horror Monday as flames engulfed the building and rescuers tried to save as much as they could of the cathedral's treasures. Many more came Tuesday to the banks of the river Seine to gaze at where the roof and steeple once stood. A firefighter suffered injuries during the blaze, which at one point threatened to bring down one of the two monumental towers on the western facade of the cathedral that is visited by 13 million tourists each year. The Holy Crown of Thorns, believed to have been worn by Jesus at his crucifixion, was saved by firefighters, as was a sacred tunic worn by 13th-century French king Louis IX.<doc-sep>Paris: Minutes before receiving the news that Notre-Dame cathedral was consumed by flames French President Emmanuel Macron had recorded a solemn message to the nation. But the highly-anticipated speech on Monday, in which he had planned to set out his recipe for ending five months of often violent "yellow vest" protests, never made it onto TV screens. Macron cancelled it to rush to the bedside of France's fire-scarred 850-year-old landmark, vowing to rebuild Notre-Dame. AFP has now seen a copy of the text of the cancelled speech, which set out several measures aimed at tackling inequality — a key gripe of the "yellow vests" — without a radical shift in policy. Macron's office refused to confirm the leaks, saying: "Today, the president and the prime minister, are prioritising the end of the operation to save Notre-Dame". The president addressed the nation Tuesday with his comments devoted to rebuilding Notre-Dame. But he also made an oblique reference to the shelved speech. "I will return to you in the next days so that we can act," said Macron in the televised address, warning against "false impatience". "Tomorrow politics and its tumult will resume... but now that moment has not come," he said. In the shelved speech, Macron had vowed to lower taxes on the middle classes — a measure he says he will pay for by cracking down tax evasion. He also promises a review in 2020 of his highly unpopular decision to cut a "fortune solidarity tax" on high earners. Macron has always defended the move, over which he was labelled "the president of the rich" by his leftist critics, as necessary to encourage investment in France. But he tells the French that he is ready to "make all the modifications and corrections necessary" to the levy if the review shows that it was not translating into investment and jobs. Macron also makes concessions to demands by voters for ordinary citizens be given more of a say in law-making. He says he favours more citizen-sponsored referendums on local issues. However he stops short at allowing such ballots on issues of national importance — a key demand of the yellow vests — proposing instead to simplify a rarely-used constitutional provision allowing MPs and citizens to band together to try oppose draft laws. Other measures include: Scrapping the elite ENA college in Paris for senior public servants of which he, like several former presidents, is a graduate; Implementing inflation-linked increases for small pensions; Adding more public servants in outlying areas that feel abandoned by the state while reducing their numbers in central administrations in Paris. The measures were drawn up after a major voter-listening exercise launched by Macron in January to take the heat out of the "yellow vest" protests. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in debates in community halls across the country between January 15 and March 15. Macron himself spent over 90 hours discussing policy with local officials and citizens. At the weekend he had promised to "transform the anger into solutions".<doc-sep>French President Emmanuel Macron is changing up his priorities. Macron was scheduled to give a "highly-anticipated" television address on Monday evening in response to the Yellow Vest movement, a sometimes-violent national protest that began after a French fuel tax hike last November based around the beliefs that ordinary French citizens have lost purchasing power and that Macron's policies favor the rich. Per France 24, Macron was possibly going to introduce tax cuts and other measures to help retirees and single parents. But he postponed the speech at the last minute, as the Notre Dame cathedral caught on fire in Paris. Macron instead traveled to the site of the blaze. Per Politico, the president wrote on Twitter that his thoughts "are with all Catholics and French people" and that he was said to see "this part of us burning." Notre-Dame de Paris en proie aux flammes. Émotion de toute une nation. Pensée pour tous les catholiques et pour tous les Français. Comme tous nos compatriotes, je suis triste ce soir de voir brûler cette part de nous. — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 15, 2019 Per The Associated Press, Macron is treating the fire as a national emergency and, upon arrival at the scene, went straight into meetings at the Paris police headquarters. It remains unclear what, if any, parts of the Cathedral firefighters will be able to save.<doc-sep>
French President Emmanuel Macron has postponed an important address to the nation that was to lay out his responses to the yellow vest crisis because of the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Advertising Read more Macron was planning to announce on Monday evening a series of measures after three months of a national debate that encouraged ordinary people to propose changes to France's economy and democracy. Instead he headed to the scene of the fire. >> LIVE: Fire ravages iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris The French presidency didn't reschedule the speech yet. When he does speak, Macron is expected to respond to protesters' concerns over their loss of purchasing power with possible tax cuts and measures to help retirees and single parents. Other proposed changes could affect France's democratic rules. Some observers say Macron may open up the possibility that citizens could propose referendums. The French leader has repeatedly said he won't reintroduce a wealth tax on the country's richest people one of the protesters' major demands. The yellow vest movement, prompted by a fuel tax hike in November, has expanded into a broader revolt against Macron's policies, which protesters see as favoring the rich and big businesses. Their protests, which often turned violent, especially in Paris, provoked a major domestic crisis that sent Macron's popularity to record low levels. Still, the number of demonstrators has been falling in recent weeks. Most yellow vests leaders have urged supporters not to take part in Macron's national debate, saying they did not believe the government's offer to listen to the French. Ingrid Levavasseur of the yellow vests published an open letter Monday called "M. President, don't play the illusionist." She demanded measures to boost purchasing power and maintain public services. Macron has already made concessions, but they failed to extinguish the anger of the yellow vest movement. In December, he abandoned the fuel tax hike, scrapped a tax increase for retirees and introduced a 100-euro ($113) monthly bonus to increase the minimum wage, a package estimated at 10 billion euros ($11.5 billion). (AP) Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe