Carpentras: a Petainist song broadcast over the loudspeakers for May 8, the town defends itself

GERARD JULIEN / AFP

The town hall of Carpentras, in Vaucluse. (illustrative photo)

The May 8 commemorations, celebrating the end of the Second World War in Europe, took place on Friday throughout France. In Carpentras in Vaucluse, what could be described as a “sound incident” disrupted the day of tribute.

As reported HERE Vaucluse, the Pétainist song Maréchal, nous voilà ! was broadcast over loudspeakers in the town of 30,000 inhabitants, on the town hall square, around 5:30 p.m. Several witnesses were able to confirm this, before the town hall ended up admitting it.

The RN mayor of Carpentras, Hervé de Lépinau, who had initially contested images filmed by ICI Vaucluse where we can hear the song in praise of Marshal Pétain (see below), later admitted to local radio that it had indeed been broadcast. But according to him, without the knowledge of the municipality.

Still according to the councilor, the song was on a playlist provided by a service provider for the previous municipality. This playlist has not been rechecked since. After that, Hervé de Lépinau announced that he was going to break the contract and file a complaint “for malice” against the service provider.

The provider’s apologies

The latter – RTV FM – has since apologized, via a press release published on his X account. He explains “having broadcast a pre-recorded musical sequence entitled “The Liberation Ball†and into which the title “Marshal, here we are!†RTVFM would like to express its most sincere apologies to the commune of Carpentras, to the veterans, to the patriotic associations and to all the participants present during this commemorative day. »

“This accidental broadcast, as brief as it is inappropriate, in no way reflects the deep respect that our radio station has for the memory of the combatants and the historical significance of this day.”continues the service provider, who further emphasizes that “The mayor, his elected officials and the events department are in no way responsible for the broadcast of this music title which is totally inappropriate and incompatible with the values ​​put forward during such an event.”

During the day of this Saturday, May 9, Alain Giraudi, president of RTV FM, also spoke to AFP. “We make our mea culpa: it is an internal fault of our programmer who, in wanting to do quality work, downloaded a title that he did not know.”he explained.

“The town hall’s events department sent us a playlist which did not include this song. The programmer listened to it and judged the sound quality to be poor. He went to look for a playlist called “1939-1945 in songs – The Liberation Ball”on which this song appeared, but “He says he left it because he heard it in the film “Les Choristes†and did not make the connection.â€a détaillé Alain Giraudi. “The technician is in bad shape, he is 33 years old and is at the heart of a controversy which is completely beyond him.”he added.