Thousands of French youth desecrate a War Memorial in the name of Art

An art performance that saw over three thousand youths trample the graves of the war dead at Verdun and “fight” with each other has been widely condemned.

To mark the 100 year anniversary of the World War One Battle of Verdun the ruling Socialist party, headed by French President François Hollande, organised a performance that has been condemned for being in poor taste and disrespectful.

Some 3,400 French and German teenagers ran across the graves of the war dead at the Verdun memorial where they pretended to play fight with each other to the sound of drumming. French politicians from the Front National to the Republicans expressed their outrage at the performance, Le Figaro reports.

The performance, choreographed by German film maker Volker Schlondorff, was meant to symbolise the battle of Verdun but many felt it made a mockery of the war dead. Leader of the Front National Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter in the immediate aftermath of the performance: “at Verdun, the ‘show ‘ is jogging among the tombs. Indecent, really indecent”.

Her comments were followed by those of her niece, rising star of the French right, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen who condemned the ruling Socialist Party in particular, tweeting: “desecrating the graves to the sound of drums to commemorate Verdun: the honour of our ancestors was violated” and then later :”I feel great contempt for the Socialist leaders who organised this event.”