The world watched in horror as Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, sustained heavy fire damage in 2019.
But only one year after the church was reopened to the public, hundreds of thousands of people are fighting to preserve the historic site — not from fire, but from French President Emmanuel Macron.
The official wants to replace the stained glass windows in six of the seven chapels on the south aisle with more modern alternatives, according to a report from The Christian Post.
Macron’s desire for a “contemporary gesture” and a “21st century mark” on Notre-Dame would be driven by a competition in which members of the public could submit ideas for their designs.
A petition against the proposal has earned more than 331,000 signatures as of Dec. 30.
The petition argued that the windows, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, are integral to Notre-Dame’s Gothic architecture.
🇫🇷 FRENCH FUME AS MACRON SPENDS €3M TO “WOKIFY” NOTRE-DAME
Macron is under fire for greenlighting a €3M makeover of Notre-Dame’s stained-glass windows, replacing historic 19th-century glass with modern designs critics say erase French heritage.
The originals survived the 2019… pic.twitter.com/Sqdl2Q10Et
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 12, 2025
“Here there is a search for architectural unity and a hierarchy of space that is an integral part of his work, and one of the aims of the work was to rediscover it,” the petition said.
“In fact, the work in progress includes cleaning and consolidating all the stained glass windows.”
The windows were not damaged by the fire, and the French Ministry of Culture previously vowed not to tamper with them.
Macron has expressed support for moving the windows to the museum in the Hôtel-Dieu, but the petition said that such a plan would still needlessly disrupt the church’s design.
“After all, these stained glass windows, which are — deliberately — purely decorative compositions with geometric decorations, are only of interest in situ, as an integral part of the architecture,” the petition continued.
“They would have no meaning outside the architecture, and would take up a very large space in the rooms of the Hôtel Dieu, preventing other works from being displayed there, without any benefit to the public,” it added.
The designs for the new stained-glass windows at Notre-Dame Cathedral went on display today at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The existing windows, which survived the 2019 fire, remain intact and do not need replacing.
Why is this necessary? pic.twitter.com/qAm6dbFykN
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) December 9, 2025
The petition asked whether the countless people around the world who made the restoration of Notre-Dame possible “will accept that its restoration be altered by Emmanuel Macron’s desire to leave his mark on it.”
“The signatories of this petition are therefore calling for the Ministry of Culture’s initial decision to retain the stained glass windows designed by Viollet-le-Duc in the cathedral to be respected, and for the President of the Republic’s decision to equip six of the seven chapels in the south aisle with contemporary stained glass windows to be abandoned,” the petition concluded.
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