Asked about France Bleu Pays d’Auvergne on his trip to Vichy (Allier), Emmanuel Macron responded in substance to the controversies launched by the far-right presidential candidate, Eric Zemmour, on the role of the regime of the same name during the Second World War. The polemicist said in particular that Marshal Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, had “Safe” French Jews. In December 2020, the prosecution requested a 10,000 euros fine against him for contesting a crime against humanity.
“Let us beware of [l’histoire] handle, to shake it to see it again. But let’s honor those who fought so that we can be a free people. And let us salute the courage of these 80 parliamentarians, who, in Vichy, opposed what was the spirit of defeat, and said no “, declared the head of state.
“We have lived this story, it is written by historians and it is a good thing to stick to it”, added the president. “I think that history, we gain by respecting it, by learning it, allowing historians on the basis of traces and documents, to build a historiographical truth “.