Xavier Delarue, the government prefect of Meuse department in eastern France, said he would take action over remarks made following a mass for Petain organised by an association dedicated to restoring his reputation

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and a leading Jewish community group also condemned the comments

The Association to Defend the Memory of Marshal Petain (ADMP) organised a mass Saturday at Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Verdun, where Petain won a famous WWI battle in 1916

Around 20 association members attended. Outside about 100 people, watched by police, gathered to protest the ceremony

After the mass ADMP president Jacques Boncompain told journalists that Petain had been "the first resistant of France"

Boncompain also said Petain's post-war conviction for treason by a High Court of Justice had not been fair

Protestors booed one member of the pro-Petain group as he sang a song in praise of Petain "Marshal, Here We Are"[…]
Nunez[…]said: "The remarks made today on the sidelines of a mass in 'tribute' to Philippe Petain in Verdun go against our collective memory"

The minister condemned any attempt to rehabilitate someone linked to WWII collaboration and oppression

Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, which represents Jewish institutions in France, called the tribute an insult to the memory of 76,000 Jews deported during Petain's time[…]
Revisionism, under French criminal law, is the act of negating or minimising crimes such as genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity

Anyone convicted faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to 45,000 euros ($52,000)

The Petain tribute came soon after France's Armistice Day on November 11[…]when the nation remembers those who fought and died in the conflict

Verdun's mayor, Samuel Hazard, had tried to ban the pro-Petain ceremony, but was overruled by a court on Friday

[The man who sang Maréchal, nous voila has been identified in French sources as Pierre-Nicolas Nups]