The European Free Alliance Youth is working towards a Europe that respects the cultures and the territories of all peoples. In this spirit, the EFAy utterly condemns the harsh sentence imposed on six young people for acts of graffiti in the city of Nantes and would like to issue the following statement.
On February 12th 2009 six young people were arrested in Nantes accused of defacing property, using graffiti as part of the campaign to publicise the reunification of Brittany. On 5th March the same six defendants were each sentenced to a two month suspended prison sentence, a 30000€ fine and 100 hours community service for each of the youths.
The EFAy believes that this sentence is disproportionate to the crime to which the six young people stood accused and believe that the sentence may have been politically motivated, because of the nature of the attacks. The EFAy believes that the six youths were merely using the only means available to them to demonstrate their discontentment with the democratic process. The reunification of Brittany with the Loire Atlantique department (which includes Nantes) has widespread support in the department and throughout Brittany, but Breton reunification has been denied the people through every democratic means.
The EFAy therefore believes that this is an unjust verdict and demands that fair and just treatment is administered by the French courts in such matters that are proportionate to the crime.
It is a fact that Brittany was deliberately split into two parts in 1941 under Vichy France and the debate about its future has been deliberately stifled by the President of the French Pays de la Loire region of which the Loire Atlantique department is now part. The EFAy is aware that institutional reform is currently being discussed by the central French Government in Paris, which could mean the reduction of the number of French regions from its current 22 to 15. This could mean that Loire Atlantique (including Nantes) is finally reunified with Brittany, making it again into the historic territory it so rightly deserves to be and in accordance with
international agreements.
For EFA Youth, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
UDB Yaouank 