Nantes campaigns to rejoin Brittany

CAMPAIGNERS have called for a referendum on whether Nantes and the surrounding department should become part of Brittany again.

The Loire-Atlantique department was separated from the rest of Brittany by Pétain during the Vichy regime in 1941.

It is today considered part of the Pays de la Loire region, which does not want to lose the department to Brittany because Nantes plays an important industrial and economic role.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 people joined a march in Nantes organised by campaign group Naoned e Breizh (Nantes in Brittany).

Demonstrators sang Breton songs and held banners that read: "Vichy is over. Reunite Brittany."

The group wants next year's presidential election candidates to make their position on the issue clear.

Plans to redraw France's regional boundaries, including a reunification of Brittany, were scrapped last summer.

The idea was part of a law to simplify the different layers of local government in France.

Photo: Eusebius@Commons/Flickr