Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to the Vercors maquis and recollects this “time when the French did not love France” | EUROtoday

“Here, eighty years ago, French people killed other French people. » Emmanuel Macron paid, on Tuesday April 16, an unprecedented tribute to the Vercors maquis to also recall, during this stage of the Liberation commemorations, this “time when French people did not like France”.

This is the primary time {that a} President of the Republic has participated in a tribute ceremony in Vassieux-en-Vercors, within the Drôme, scene in July 1944 of the bloodbath of seventy-three villagers by the Wehrmacht, the military of Third Reich.

“They ranged from 18 months to 91 years old”, declared the mayor, Thomas Ottenheimer, in entrance of the martyrology, a bas-relief on the principle sq. itemizing the victims, whose names younger folks then chanted. He advocated the“appeasement” and the ” gathering “ in reminiscence of those victims, whose “names forever engraved in stone” remind “where does hatred lead”.

“They didn’t like de Gaulle and the spirit of resistance”

Charles de Gaulle solely made a fast cease in 1963, and Nicolas Sarkozy went, in 2009, to the neighboring village of La Chapelle-en-Vercors. The arrival of a head of state in Vassieux, ” that's the lesser of it “estimates Daniel Huillier, nationwide president of the Pionniers du Vercors.

He notes that this ceremony contrasts with custom, which requires that July 21 be commemorated in Vassieux, the date of the ultimate and notably merciless assault by German troops, who then killed eight hundred and forty resistance fighters and civilians within the Vercors. The date of April 16, chosen this 12 months, corresponds to the primary assault by the French militia.

“Let us also remember these French people, their choices and their mistakes”declared Emmanuel Macron, after saluting the reminiscence of this “Republic of Vercors” who had stood as much as the occupier. “French people ready to kill other French people and, with them, this certain idea of ​​France. French people consumed by the spirit of defeat, inseparable from hatred of the Republic. »

“Because it wasn’t just a time when the French didn’t love each other. It was also a time when French people did not like France. Yes, they did not like the France of the Enlightenment or that of 1789 and Year II. They didn't like Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Zola. They didn't like de Gaulle and the spirit of resistance »he added.

For the president, “the Vercors path must be remembered, the vertigo of the descent or the jolt towards the summit”. His entourage assumes “take the story as a whole”. “Remembering also means showing all the gray areas”explains a relative to Agence France-Presse.

In this small village within the Drôme mountains, rebuilt after being utterly destroyed on the finish of the Second World War, the Head of State had beforehand visited the necropolis of the Resistance. A brand new stage in its reminiscence cycle to mark the eightieth^e anniversary of the Liberation.