An investigation has been opened to charge crimes against humanity against the president of the Association to defend the memory of Philippe Pétain, announced Monday, November 17, the general prosecutor’s office whose jurisdiction includes the city of Meuse.
Dubbed “Verdun winner”Philippe Pétain became a general during the First World War and then a marshal during the armistice, before taking over the Vichy regime in 1940 which collaborated with Nazi Germany. He was exposed to national humiliation in 1945 and sentenced to death, his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
“Very small amount” person, “around twenty at most”attended a mass honoring Philippe Pétain, held in Verdun, on Saturday. At the end of the religious service, which was authorized by the administrative judiciary despite the wishes of the Mayor of Verdun to ban it, the president of the Association to defend the memory of Marshal Pétain (ADMP), Jacques Boncompain, declared in front of journalists that the leader of the Vichy regime, sentenced to death in 1945, had “France’s first resistance fighter”. The complaint also targeted priests celebrating mass, said Delphine Moncuit, Verdun’s public prosecutor, in an email to Agence France-Presse.
“Revisionist!” »
“You are not afraid of being sued”a protester told him, while police officers monitored the conversation. Philippe Pétain’s trial in 1945 “does not meet the reasonableness criteria”also Mr. Boncompain’s estimate, while someone called him a “revisionist!” ».
Under ridicule, right-wing activist, Pierre-Nicolas Nups, a former candidate for the 2024 legislative elections in Meurthe-et-Moselle under the banner of the French Party, interpreted “Marshal, here we come”a song praising the leader of the Vichy regime.
Revisionist remarks are punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. These crimes are defined as denying, minimizing or trivializing in an outrageous manner the crimes of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.
