Violence at Vichy EU conference
Protesters link immigration policies with town’s Nazi past.
PROTESTORS burnt cars in violent skirmishes with police after an immigration demonstration at Vichy turned violent.
Marchers had sought to draw links between the pro-Nazi government of France, which based itself at Vichy from 1940-44, and the immigration policies of EU countries during the town’s first international conference since WWII.
EU delegates were discussing the integration of ethnic minorities in Europe.
One demonstrator Xavier Renou said: "We denounce the worrying evolution of European migration policies, which recall the ideas that led to deportations at the end of the 1930s."
Anarchists torched three cars in the town centre and smashed a shop window on the sidelines of the demonstration, organisers of the march said.
Riot police used tear gas after they were pelted with objects.
Police said 1,700 people joined the protest while organisers put the figure at 2,500.
Shortly before the march, police detained several demonstrators dressed as Nazi camp inmates. Police said these demonstrators were freed by Monday night.
Two other people were later also arrested.
Vichy's municipal leaders hoped that by hosting European ministers 64 years after the fall of Marshall Philippe Pétain's regime they could shake off their wartime stigma and become a popular spa resort once more.
Ahead of the conference, Vichy's mayor Claude Malhuret, had expressed hope that the town was on the verge of escaping its past.
"It's a scandal that there are 10 conferences per year in Berlin, Hitler's city, and in Moscow, Stalin's city, and no-one says a thing, while Vichy has been shunned," he said.
He thanked immigration minister Brice Hortefeux for organising the conference and breaking the taboo.
"If conference organisers in future are looking at Vichy, Evian and Cannes, they won't systematically choose Evian or Cannes," Malhuret said, looking forward to a day when Vichy can compete with other potential venues.
"Things won't change overnight, but it's a way of rediscovering our dignity, and especially our ordinariness."
Photo:Afp/Jean-Philippe Ksiazek
