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Seventy arrested as France's Hollande booed at WWI tribute
PARIS (Reuters) - French police detained about 70 people at an Armistice Day memorial ceremony on Monday after protesters whom the government said were linked to the far right booed President Francois Hollande.
Newscasters said it was the first time a French head of state had been jeered on November 11, which commemorates the signing of the armistice in 1918 between World War One allies and Germany.
Scuffles erupted between police and the protesters as the Socialist president's motorcade drove up the tree-lined Champs- Elysees boulevard to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.
Some of the protesters shouted "Hollande, step down" and "Socialist Dictator!" Interior Minister Manuel Valls said they included members of far-right groups opposed to government policies such as same-sex marriages.
"Today on the Champs-Elysees, several dozen individuals linked to the far right ... did not want to respect this moment of contemplation and gathering," Valls told reporters, describing their actions as "unacceptable". . . .
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