Olivier Faure criticized for his comparison between Le Porge and Oradour-sur-Glane

The comparison is not going down well. The Socialist primary candidate for the presidential election is the target of criticism following his comparison between the village of Le Porge (Gironde) and Oradour-sur-Glane (Haute-Vienne) on Friday, September 4, on ICI Gironde radio. The First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) had visited Le Porge the day before, where 183 homes were destroyed during this summer's fires.

"I don't know if one should dare make this comparison, but it has an Oradour-sur-Glane feel to it with these completely burned houses," he stated. "Fortunately no casualties," but "it's true that you can imagine at that moment the violence of the fire with houses that are totally destroyed and of which absolutely nothing remains, burned, charred cars, and then these kilometers of black pine trees, there is a kind of vision of horror," he continued.

"It is a terrible ordeal, but not a war crime"

However, this reference to the massacre committed in Oradour-sur-Glane by the Nazis on June 10, 1944, during which more than 640 people were killed in this village that was entirely looted and set on fire, is not going down well. These remarks were described as "indecent" by MoDem MP Marc Fesneau. "Your comparison is an insult to the memory of this martyr village," stated the president of the Les Démocrates group in the National Assembly on X.

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"Le Porge, (...) is a terrible ordeal, but it is not a war crime committed by the SS," added the centrist MP, demanding "an apology" from the Socialist primary candidate. Former minister Bruno Le Maire also demanded an apology from the First Secretary of the PS on Radio J, describing Olivier Faure's remarks as a "shame" and a "public indignity."

The Socialist primary candidate's comments sparked criticism even within his own camp. Former Socialist senator David Assouline notably expressed outrage on X on Friday. "What? Comparing Le Porge, ravaged by a fire this summer, to Oradour-sur-Glane, where at least 643 civilians were massacred by an SS division during the Second World War? There is still work to be done to pass on this memory and give it meaning," he wrote.