Vichy calls for Nazi past to be forgotten after 60 years
The inhabitants of the French town of Vichy say they are sick of being treated as outcasts over their Second World War Nazi links.
Local officials have called for an end to the 'ostracism' and constant digs over collaboration.
The local mayor hit out after left-wing groups said it was inappropriate for the town to stage its first international summit for 60 years.
After being shunned for decades by conference organisers keen to avoid any links with the former capital of the pro-Nazi puppet regime, Vichy will finally stages an EU conference on integration and asylum.
The town's mayor Claude Malhuret, from President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, said the conference would "at last break the ostracism of the last 60 years."
"I find it scandalous that there are 10 conferences per year in Berlin, Hitler's city, and in Moscow, Stalin's city, and nobody says anything, while Vichy has long been forbidden to hold an international conference," he said.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
Local officials have called for an end to the 'ostracism' and constant digs over collaboration.
The local mayor hit out after left-wing groups said it was inappropriate for the town to stage its first international summit for 60 years.
After being shunned for decades by conference organisers keen to avoid any links with the former capital of the pro-Nazi puppet regime, Vichy will finally stages an EU conference on integration and asylum.
The town's mayor Claude Malhuret, from President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, said the conference would "at last break the ostracism of the last 60 years."
"I find it scandalous that there are 10 conferences per year in Berlin, Hitler's city, and in Moscow, Stalin's city, and nobody says anything, while Vichy has long been forbidden to hold an international conference," he said.