The French presidency has backpedalled remarks by Emmanuel Macron that he would honour wartime Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain at Armistice Day commemorations on Saturday.
Mr Macron had said the leader of the Vichy France puppet state during the Second World War was “a great soldier” because of his service fighting Germany in the previous world war.
But the French President’s spokesman Benjamin Griveaux later said there was “never a question” of recognising Pétain alongside other French veterans of the First World War, but conceded his office may not have been “sufficiently clear” on who would receive honours.
Mr Griveaux wrote on Facebook that only those leaders whose honour had not been “tainted” would be recognised, naming military leaders such as Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch, Joseph Joffre and Émile Fayolle.
