Students and professors at Savoie Mont-Blanc University in Chambéry, Haute-Savoie, found their campus dotted with portraits of Marshal Pétain and anti-immigration posters this Monday.
On certain walls and billboards on the Jacob-Bellecombette campus, one could read
“Faced with the migratory invasion, STOP immigration”
, or even, as a caption to the portrait of the French head of state under Vichy, the one of his quotes:
“I have been with you in the glorious days, I remain with you in the dark days”
.
The university has announced its intention to file a complaint over these displays, which occur at the time of an important commemoration for this center of French resistance.
This week marks the 80th anniversary of the fighting on the Glières plateau, where nearly five hundred resistance fighters fought to liberate the territory at the risk of their lives.
This is not the first time that the Jacob-Bellecombette campus has been targeted by a pro-Pétain and anti-immigration poster campaign.
In April 2023, neo-Nazi inscriptions and nationalist tags were also discovered in the same place.
The EELV party of the Pays de Savoie reacted strongly in a press release on Monday.
“The Militia, Vichy France, selected French citizens, sent citizens to deportation and death for their religion, their political ideas or their sexual orientation,”
declared the elected environmentalists
.
“We call on local elected officials and our institutions to take action to rediscover a republican discourse.
Savoie has been, is, and will remain a land of resistance against the ideas of the extreme right.