For several decades, it remained one of the most shameful secrets of post-war France: from 1963 to 1982, more than 2,000 children were deported from the French-governed Indian Ocean island of La Réunion to mainland France in a government programme to repopulate deserted rural areas in the centre of the country. It was only in 2002 that the scandal first came to public attention, beginning a long campaign for justice. That finally resulted in an official commission of enquiry which this week presented its initial findings, when it formally recognised the displaced children’s suffering, including maltreatment and racism. But the victims, a number of whom are now in their 50s and 60s, are still waiting for proper reparation.
A Member of Parliament from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party caused uproar this week after denouncing homosexuals as over-represented “at the heart of power”, likening gay relationships to incest, dismissing the deportation of homosexuals from France during German occupation of the country in WWII as a “great legend”, and describing homosexuality as a state of “narcissism” built on “a stupid theory of genders”. The controversy caused by Christian Vanneste (pictured) erupted the day Sarkozy officially announced his bid for re-election, and coincided with the president’s dismissal of opening up marriage to gay couples “in these troubled times where our society needs points of reference”. Ellen Salvi reports.
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