Protests as France's Vichy hosts first conference since war

VICHY, France (AFP) — Protesters against Europe's immigration policy descended on the town of Vichy Monday as the shamed capital of France's former pro-Nazi dictatorship hosted its first international government conference since World War II.

Anarchists torched three cars in the town centre and smashed a shop window on the sidelines of the demonstration, organisers of the march and an AFP journalist said.

Riot police used tear gas after they were pelted with objects.

Police said 1,700 people joined the protest while organisers put the figure at 2,500.

Shortly before the march police detained several demonstrators dressed as Nazi camp inmates. Some protesters said they sought to link the pro-Nazi Vichy era with the EU countries' controversial immigration policies.

Police said these demonstrators were freed by Monday night.

Two other people were later also arrested.

Vichy's municipal leaders hoped that by finally hosting European ministers 64 years after the fall of Marshall Petain's regime they could shake off their wartime stigma and become a popular spa resort once more.

But several busloads of militants had other ideas, and turned up to protest a conference called to discuss the integration of ethnic minorities in Europe, with some linking current French policy to that of the pro-Nazi past.

"We denounce the worrying evolution of European migration policies, which recall the ideas that led to deportations at the end of the 1930s," declared the leader of a small anti-globalsation group, Xavier Renou.

Ahead of the conference, Vichy's conservative mayor Claude Malhuret, had expressed hope that the town was on the verge of escaping its grim past.

"It's a scandal that there are 10 conferences per year in Berlin, Hitler's city, and in Moscow, Stalin's city, and no-one says a thing, while Vichy has been shunned," complained Malhuret.

He thanked Brice Hortefeux, France's minister of immigration, integration and national identity, for organising the conference and breaking the taboo.

"If conference organisers in future are looking at Vichy, Evian and Cannes, they won't systematically choose Evian or Cannes," Malhuret said, looking forward to a day when Vichy can compete with other potential venues.

"Things won't change overnight, but it's a way of rediscovering our dignity, and especially our ordinariness."

Officials from the 27 EU members are to hold two days of talks.

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