Pétain Returns to France.

Maréchal Pétain: still beloved by the French Right.*

“The Front National is respectable!”

These were the words of a Sarkozy supporter about to board a specially hired train to the outgoing President’s May Day Paris Rally this morning on France-Inter.

We are told that up to 50,ooo people are expected at the Trocadéro for Sarkozy’s   «vraie fête» du travail.  

Sarkozy is bidding for re-election on the themes of Real Work, Family, and Fatherland.

Or as Maréchal Pétain called them ” Travail, Famille, Patrie.”

Others, also nostalgic for Pétain will go to the Front National’s annual Jeanne d’Arc event. There they will hear Jean Marie Le Pen commmorating the 600th anniversary of the  «la naissance de la pucelle de Domrémy»  the birth of the Maid of Orleans, as she is known in English.

His daughter, speaking in the Palais Royale, (made up to resemble an Italian Piazza ready for a visit from Mussolini) is expected to call for a spoiled vote in the Presidential run-off this Sunday.

Marine is hoping that the Parliamentary Right will explode in this election and that she, in the shape of new ‘respectable’ far-right party will sweep up the pieces. (Here)

Trade Unions and the left will assemble in unity, and with dignity, across France in 288 marches. In Paris they will rally at the Bastille.

Let’s hope the foul taste of these Pétainists will soon be washed out of our mouths.

* Le 24 avril 1941, le maréchal Pétain instaure officiellement le 1er Mai comme «la fête du Travail et de la Concorde sociale ».