The Prime Minister Manuel Valls in Oradour new town
The Prime Minister Manuel Valls in front of the Post Office of
Oradour new town on 10th June 2014
After the ceremony for the 70th anniversary of the massacre at Oradour was over, the Prime Minister Manuel Valls went on a walkabout, shaking hands and generally using the occasion as a party political event. This I thought was wrong, the day was for remembering the past, not making political capital. I felt he should simply have thanked everyone involved and left (maybe I am wrong and this was just the French way of doing things, but in places it did look like a political event, rather than an occasion for national remembrance). The building in the background is the Post Office in the new town of Oradour-sur-Glane.
© Michael Williams: June 2014