On September 21, 1792, France’s National Convention abolished the monarchy. The creation of the First Republic was a watershed in French history, with the next day soon designated “Day One of Year One” of the revolutionary calendar. The changing of the times was matched by a challenge to the established social order, notably in the constitution passed on June 24, 1793. Alongside its democratic spirit, its opposition to racial discrimination, and its economic radicalism, the document proclaimed France the “friend and ally of free nations.”

The document was never implemented — and today, its transformative spirit is not celebrated across all the political spectrum. Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre is more often invoked by liberals as a Stalin-like tyrant, whose utopian vision and Terror against opponents supposedly sowed the seats of later totalitarianisms. Some figures in left-wing movement La France Insoumise have tried to reclaim Robespierre’s legacy, and resisted attempts to cast him as a “monster.” Yet, this has in turn been used to paint the picture of an authoritarian left that, like the far right, doesn’t truly belong to the Republic.

Antoine Léaument, an MP for La France Insoumise, is an active defender of Robespierre’s legacy. This July, Léaument staged a tribute to the revolutionary leader in his Arras hometown, upon the anniversary of his execution in 1794. Léaument insisted on the relevance of Robespierre’s political ideas in the present, from the motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité” to his thinking on the redistribution of wealth and the “right to life.” In an interview with Jacobin’s David Broder, Léaument explains why the French Revolution should still inspire the international left — and why the Republic still needs to fulfill its foundational principles.