ACDN PRESS RELEASE

The Nuclear Disarmament Flame, which has burnt in Saintes (Charente-Maritime) every year since 2001 from August 6th to 9th to commemorate the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to call for a world without nuclear weapons, will not burn this year.

It could have been lit to celebrate the new Treaty to ban nuclear weapons, which 122 UN member states voted for in New York on July 7. Unfortunately, France and the other nuclear states boycotted the negotiations that produced the Treaty. France even led the boycott, and, along with the USA and the UK, declared an intention to never sign it. We protest against this attitude, and that is why – contrary to the wishes of three-quarters of French citizens – the ceremonies in Saintes will not take place.

A delegation from ACDN was received this morning at the Saintes sub-prefecture by the general secretary. It laid out the reasons for suspending the ceremonies, and submitted an explanatory letter to be sent to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and five ministers concerned.

Attached:
Letter to President Macron
List of parliamentarians who signed a draft bill to organize a referendum on France’s participation in the abolition of nuclear weapons (April 2017)