Old soldiers refuse to play ball:
Louis de Cazenave, 110, and Lazare Ponticelli, 109 (photo), are the only two remaining French soldiers from World War 1. Former president Jacques Chirac decided in 2005 that it would be nice if the last of those WW1 veterans would be given a “funeral of nationwide scope”, and be interred in a symbolic place.
No way, say the two man.
Ponticelli: “If I turn out to be the last survivor, I say no. It would be an insult to all those who died before me and were not given any honours at all.” And he adds: “War is completely stupid. You are firing on fathers of children.”
Cazenave says the notion of a state funeral “is a con“.
Faced by such obstinacy, officials are now dropping the plan. And Chirac can look back at yet another moment of being completely out of touch with reality.
