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Notre Dame fire: Macron Promises to Make Cathedral ‘More Beautiful Than Before’
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Emmanuel Macron has announced he wants to see Notre Dame cathedral rebuilt “more beautiful than before” within five years, but there are warnings that the repairs could take decades and will involve substantial challenges.
The main problems include the sourcing of materials and painstaking work to preserve elements of the church that have survived the fire but might have been badly damaged by it, experts have warned.
Eric Fischer, who heads a foundation restoring the 1,000-year-old Strasbourg Cathedral that recently underwent a three-year facelift, said he thought rebuilding Notre Dame would probably take several decades.
“The damage will be significant,” Fischer said.
Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco, the UN’ cultural organisation, said restoring Notre Dame “will last a long time and cost a lot of money”.
Donations have poured in from around the world for the restoration efforts, with more than €800m (£692m) pledged as French tycoons and global corporations announced they would donate.
“The fire at Notre Dame reminds us that our history never stops and we will always have challenges to overcome,” Macron said on Tuesday night. “We will rebuild Notre Dame, more beautiful than before – and I want it done in the next five years. We can do it. After the time of testing comes a time of reflection and then of action.”
French authorities revealed on Tuesday that the cathedral was within “15 to 30 minutes” of complete destruction as firefighters battled to stop flames reaching its gothic bell towers.
A greater disaster was averted by members of the Paris fire brigade, who risked their lives to remain inside the burning monument to create a wall of water between the raging fire and two towers on the west facade.
The revelation of how close France came to losing its most famous cathedral emerged as police investigators questioned workers involved in the restoration of the monument to try to establish the cause of the devastating blaze.
Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz said that an initial fire alert was sounded at 6:20pm on Monday evening but no fire was found. The second alert was sounded at 6:43pm, and the blaze was discovered on the roof.
Despite fears at the height of the inferno that the whole cathedral would be lost, the structure appears mainly intact.
Tom Nickson, a senior lecturer in medieval art and architecture at London’s Courtauld Institute, said the stone vault “acted as a kind of fire door between the highly flammable roof and the highly flammable interior” just as the cathedral’s medieval builders intended.
There are fears that the stones of the ceiling and beloved stained glass windows, which survived the blaze, may still have been badly damaged by it. If the stones of the vaulted ceiling have been weakened and cracked by the heat, the whole vault may need to be torn down and re-erected.
The cathedral’s exquisite stained-glass rose windows are probably suffering “thermal shock” from intense heat followed by cold water, said Jenny Alexander, an expert on medieval art and architecture at the University of Warwick. That means the glass, set in lead, could have sagged or been weakened and will need minute examination.
The first challenge for repairers will be to secure the building without disturbing the debris.
“Some of that material may be reusable, and that’s a painstaking exercise. It’s like an archaeological excavation,” said Duncan Wilson, chief executive of the conservation organisation Historic England.
Once the building has been stabilised and the damage assessed, restoration work can begin. It is likely to be an international effort.
“Structural engineers, stained-glass experts, stone experts are all going to be packing their bags and heading for Paris in the next few weeks,” Alexander said.
Financial and political considerations, as well as aesthetic ones, are likely to play a part in the decision about whether to preserve the cathedral as it was before the fire, or adapt it.
Getting materials may also be a challenge. The cathedral roof was made from oak beams cut from centuries-old trees, which were difficult to source even in the 13th century. Nickson said there is probably no country in Europe with big enough trees today.
Then there is the question of conforming to modern-day health and safety standards.
The roof of Strasbourg’s Notre Dame was set ablaze during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Nowadays the roof is split into three fire-resistant sections to make sure one blaze can’t destroy it all, with smoke detectors installed are at regular intervals.
“Cathedrals are stone phoenixes reminders that out of adversity we may be reborn,” said Emma Wells, a buildings archaeologist at the University of York.
“The silver lining, if we can call it that, is this allows for historians and archaeologists to come in and uncover more of its history than we ever knew before. It is a palimpsest of layers of history, and we can come in and understand the craft of our medieval forebears.”
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Headlines
Court Orders INEC to Publish Adebutu’s Name as Ogun PDP Governorship Candidate Within 24 Hours
The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the name of Ladi Adebutu as the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) governorship candidate for the 2027 Ogun State election within 24 hours.Judge Peter Lifu gave the order on Friday in a judgement following a suit filed by Mr Adebutu and the PDP to challenge INEC’s exclusion of his name from the final list of candidates for the upcoming 6 February 2027 governorship election.
He consequently declared the exclusion “unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.”
In resolving the issues raised by parties, Mr Lifu held that the power to nominate candidates for “elections rested solely with political parties.” He ruled that “Neither INEC nor any other authority could take over that responsibility.”
The judge faulted the commission for waiting more than four months before “belatedly publishing the final list on 10 October” without informing the plaintiffs of any intention to exclude their candidate.
He questioned INEC’s decision to raise the issue after the primary had been conducted and monitored, when it could have raised any concerns in its monitoring report.
Mr Lifu warned that allowing INEC to exercise such powers would amount to a “dangerous show of power”.
He said such authority could allow the commission to disqualify candidates only days before an election, adding that INEC did not possess absolute powers.
The judge also held that the membership register tendered before the court contained Mr Adebutu’s name against serial number 1536.
He said the evidence established that Mr Adebutu was a member of the PDP and that it was the political party, not INEC, that had the authority to determine its membership.
The judge questioned why INEC considered it its responsibility to determine who belonged to a political party, holding that the commission exceeded its powers by omitting Mr Adebutu’s name.
The dispute
The dispute followed the exclusion of Mr Adebutu and his running mate from the final list of candidates published by INEC for the 6 February 2027 Ogun State governorship election.
INEC published the final list on 10 October, featuring 13 governorship candidates but excluding the PDP from the race.
INEC said its decision followed the PDP’s alleged failure to comply with the membership register requirements under the Electoral Act 2026.
Section 77(5)–(7) of the Act requires political parties to submit their membership registers to INEC within the stipulated period. The provisions also empower the commission to scrutinise the registers.
In September, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the provisions in a case involving the Zenith Labour Party and INEC. The ruling affirmed the requirement for political parties to submit their membership registers before conducting valid primaries.
Following the exclusion, the PDP and Mr Adebutu approached the Federal High Court in Abuja in October, asking it to compel INEC to recognise him as the party’s governorship candidate.
The plaintiffs challenged the commission’s decision, arguing that it violated their right to fair hearing and breached provisions of the Electoral Act. They asked the court to set aside the decision and direct INEC to publish Mr Adebutu’s name as the party’s governorship candidate within 24 hours of its order.
INEC opposed the suit, maintaining that Mr Adebutu’s name was missing from the PDP membership register submitted to the commission. It therefore urged the court to dismiss the suit for being incompetent.
Source: Premium Times
Former Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain boss Pochettino would have an enormous task on his hands to revive a club that has never recovered from the departure of Alex Ferguson 13 years ago.
The Red Devils, once the dominant force in English football, have been overtaken by Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
United’s next game is against fierce rivals Liverpool at Anfield on November 22.
President Bola Tinubu has rewarded each player of the Flamingos with a savings certificate worth N100 million, after the team became the first African nation to win the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup.
The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, announced the awards at a reception at the Presidential Banquet Hall, Abuja, where she represented the President.
The head coach is to receive N100 million in cash, while each member of the technical crew gets N50 million.
She praised the team for winning six consecutive matches, and for the humility, discipline and respect they showed after the final.
Senator Tinubu said the victory would inspire young girls and show that their ambitions can be realised on the world stage.
She also commended the coaches, technical and medical staff, administrators, parents and fans for their contributions.
The U-17 team won their first FIFA World Cup title after defeating Japan 2-1 in the final on November 7, with goals from Awawu Bashiru and Oluebube Umejiaku securing the historic victory.
The Flamingos lost their opener 2-1 to Poland, but dominated in the remaining matches, defeating defending champions North Korea, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.
Their first-ever appearance in the final was sealed with a 3-1 victory over Brazil, before taking home the trophy after beating Japan.
The players have received commendations from government officials and football fans around the world.
President Tinubu congratulated the Flamingos for becoming the first African team to win the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
Tinubu, in a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, said he received the news upon his return from campaign engagements in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States.
He also described Nigeria’s maiden triumph as a proud moment for the country and a landmark achievement for African women’s football.
The Senate also pledged a N100 million reward for the Flamingos.
The pledge followed a motion moved by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Abdul Ningi, who congratulated the players on their outstanding performance and commended the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) for its role in the team’s achievement.
The latest feat by a Nigerian sports team came less than two years after the senior women’s football team, Super Falcons, won their 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco.
In 2025, the D’Tigress won a historic 2025 FIBA Women’s Afrobasket title.
