Verdun's mayor, Samuel Hazard, issued a decree to ban a mass honoring Marshal Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, on November 15. The Nancy administrative court authorized the event despite protests. An investigation for denying crimes against humanity was opened against the organizing association's president.
Samuel Hazard, Verdun's diverse left mayor, voiced his 'anger' and 'disgust' by issuing a decree to prohibit the mass honoring Marshal Pétain, held on November 15 in his city. He condemned the 'revisionism' portraying the Vichy regime's leader as a 'hero' due to his World War I role.
Nevertheless, the Nancy administrative court approved the event, ruling it 'not of a nature to cause public order disturbances.' Hazard persisted, leading a protest of about 100 people near Verdun's Saint-Jean-Baptiste church.
On November 17, an investigation for denying crimes against humanity targeted Jacques Boncompain, president of the Association for Defending Marshal Pétain's Memory (ADMP). Exiting the service, Boncompain dubbed Pétain France's 'first resistant' and accused Hazard of opportunism: 'This is part of launching his campaign' for March municipal elections. The event typically occurs anonymously at the Douaumont ossuary site.