Immigrants Eye Parliament in France
03 June 2007
Turkish Weekly
French of immigrant background are running in large numbers in the country's cut-throat legislative race, hoping to be represented in the 577-member legislature to have their voices heard. [..]
Mouloud Aounit, the secretary general of the Movement Against Racism, and Kamal Hamza are running on the lists of the Communist Party and the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) respectively [..] in Seine Saint Denis. [..]
Noura Ramdaniya of the UMP, Fernati Gendoubi of the Socialist Party and Houriya Hajj al-Sheikh of the Communist Party are [..] running in Marseille.
Several candidates of immigrant backgrounds are also among runners in Lyon, France's third largest city. [..]
Turning Point
Ahmed believes that choosing Rachida Dati of North African origin as justice minister in the new cabinet has been a turning point in the French political scene. [..]
Observers agree that Dati's choice has helped change the French look to immigrants and encouraged them to stand up and be counted.
Since then, many French parties have raced to field candidates of immigrant backgrounds to parliament, revealing a diverse political landscape.
Defeated Socialist candidate Segolene Royal urged voters to cast ballot for her spokeswoman Nagat Belqassem, of North African origin, in Lyon [..].
The centrist Democratic Movement of former presidential hopeful Francois Bayrou picked World Judo champion Gamal Bouras to run in the suburbs and former minister of equal opportunities Azouz Begag in Lyon while Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front fielded Farid Sameh of Algerian origin in Paris. [..]
So what happened with the candidates that were mentioned in the article, in the first round last weekend? Overall, it's not a happy story. [..]
Among them, there are three cases that stand out as representing some of the risks and questions involved; I'll present those first. [..]
Three sample cases
The other candidates
- In the constituency of Angouleme Nord, in the West of France, Malek Boutih's run as the official Socialist Party candidate (the Turkish Weekly article erroneously labelled him as Communist) turned into something of a mess.
Angouleme Nord is in a safely leftwing region, and Boutih, as former president of SOS Racisme, was parachuted in by national party HQ in its drive to increase diversity. The local party, however, was not pleased with this intervention. There had even been a primary between two alternative, local candidates.
The winner of that local primary, Martine Pinville, subsequently ran as "dissident Socialist Party" candidate in the first round - and received 21,0% of the vote, against just 15,7% for Boutih. That result eliminated Boutih from the race; and the division allowed the local candidate for Sarkozy's UMP to be the only rightwinger in the region of Charente to come in first in his district.
Now, Boutih is blaming national party chief Francois Hollande for having invited him to take part, and then dumped him in an unfavourable district, while Hollande has retorted that the district was one of the most leftwing constituencies, and that Boutih himself had asked for it.
- The Turkish Weekly article mentions three candidates in Marseilles, listing one of them as Noura Ramdaniya. Transliteration differences mean that the names listed in the article show up in different form in the French election results - eg, Fernati Gendoubi vs Ferten Djendoubi. In this case, I think the candidate in question is Nora Remadnia Preziosi, suggesting a more mixed background, and she stands for the UMP.
Of all the candidates mentioned in the article, she is the single one who has a chance of being elected in the second round. She came in second in the first round with 30,3%, behind the Socialist Party candidate Sylvie Andrieux's 38,6%. In fact, the run-off between the two should be interesting.
Generally speaking, one would be able to roughly add the Communist, Trotskyite and Green votes to the Socialist candidate's score, and the National Front's vote and that of other nationalist parties (MFP, MNR) to the conservative candidate's score. That would, in this case, leave the score roughly tied at 50% to 46%, with a few votes for the candidate of Bayrou's Democratic Movement (MoDem) left in the middle.
But will ethnic loyalties play a role in the run-off, and how? Both the Communist and MoDem candidates were of Arab origin, as were two of the more marginal losing candidates - could Ramdaniya get some of their votes on that basis? But won't National Front voters, on the other hand, rather vote for the 'more French' Socialist, or stay home, than vote for her?
- Djamel Bouras turned out to be a somewhat controversial last-minute candidate for the MoDem in the second district of Paris Seine saint-Denis. A former judoka who works with the local suburban youth, both Royal and Sarkozy had talked with him, but it was Bayrou's movement that chose him as candidate.
The decision was however criticized both within the MoDem and from the left. The vice-president of SOS Racisme accused Bouras of having supported "radical forces" and being "driven by resentment," saying that he had in the past supported both Diedonne, the black, anti-zionist comedian who is close to the Front National, and the Hizbollah TV station Al-Manar. He also referred disparagingly to Bouras' stance against the law prohibiting veils in schools.
Bouras ended coming fourth, with 9.6% of the vote, somewhat above the MoDem's national tally of 7,6%. He trailed the Communist (32,7%), UMP (22,6%) and Socialist (20,4%) candidates.
All in all not a hopeful sum total: from among the candidates mentioned in the Turkish Weekly article. Five reached the second round, and just one stands at least a chance of winning the seat.
- Among the other candidates mentioned in the article, there are three who stood in the constituency of Aubervilliers, in the banlieues of Paris Seine saint-Denis. Kamal Hamza, who stood for Sarkozy's conservative UMP, made it to the second round with 18% of the vote. He is, however, the underdog in a contest against Socialist Party candidate Daniel Goldberg, who came first and will attract most of the voters of the Communist candidate [..].
- In district 18 of Paris [..] Jeannette Bougrab made it to the second round as the candidate for Sarkozy's UMP, with 29,6% of the vote. She is, however, the underdog against the Socialist candidate, Christophe Caresche, who is likely to attract those who voted Green or Communist in the first round.
- It's the same story for Lynda Asmani, UMP candidate in district 5 of Paris. She made it to the second round with a respectable 29,0%, but will face Tony Dreyfus in the second round, a Socialist who came in first and should be able to pull the Green, Communist and Trotskyite votes as well.
- In the suburbs of Marseille, Communist candidate Haouaria Hadj Chikh did not get far, with just 5,3% of the vote. But on the outskirts of Marseille, Ferten Djendoubi did not do badly as the Socialist candidate, getting 18,4%. He never stood a chance against UMP candidate Guy Teissier though, who was elected directly with over 55% of the vote.
- Azouz Begag, the former minister of equal opportunities who had a high-profile falling out with Sarkozy and now stood as MoDem candidate in central Lyon, was eliminated from the race. He received 14,7%, trailing the Socialist Party candidate as well as the likely winner of the run-off, of the UMP.
- Elsewhere in Lyon, Socialist candidate Najat Belkacem reached the second round with 24,8% of the vote. That's 2,5% more than the Socialist candidate got in 2002, she pointed out, but nevertheless leaves her with little chance in the run-off against the UMP candidate, who got 47,9%.
An alternative view
But then again, perhaps the Turkish Weekly just looked up the wrong people.
An article that appeared right after the first round headlined Azouz Begag's post-defeat sigh that, "Let's be frank. I think the French people are not quite ready to vote for candidates that they consider foreigners." (Expatica: French 'not quite ready' to elect minorities to parliament.)
But buried in the story were slightly more encouraging numbers: it cited a total dozen of candidates from France's Arab and black minorities who qualified for the runoff. It also listed two further candidates who stood a chance of winning a seat.
Sum totals
- Algerian-born cardiologist Salem Kacet is standing as the UMP candidate in the northern city of Roubaix. He came in second with 36,3%, a hairwidth behind the Socialist candidate Dominique Baert. As in the case of Nora Remadnia, the run-off should be interesting: where will third-party voters go? After all, the number three in the first round, with 9%, was the Front National candidate; and the number four, with 6%, was a MoDem candidate called Louisa Mokhtari. Vote transfers could be unpredictable.
- Guadaloupe-born lawyer George Pau-Langevin, is running as a Socialist in the 21st district of Paris. She came in second, but with just 17 votes less than the conservative front-runner. She stands a good chance of winning - but for a reason that again underlines the hurdles faced in increasing diversity in parliament.
Like Malek Boutih, Langevin was encouraged as candidate by the national party, and her candidature triggered a "dissident" run by the outgoing Socialist MP, Michel Charzat, a follower of Laurent Fabius. The campaign was bitter enough, with national party leaders like Delanoe and Strauss-Kahn intervening to lambast Charzat, and Charzat wrongfully using the Socialist Party logo for his own run. Langevin ended up with 27,8%, and Charzat with 14,1%.
The district is obviously a left-leaning one, with Greens, Communists and Trotskyites pooling another 16%, but Langevin still needs to rally Charzat's voters as well to win. [..]
The above info is gleaned largely from the election map of Le Monde, as well as from some articles: Les candidats ultramarins connaissent des fortunes diverses à Paris; A Paris: Delanoë dénonce les "pratiques édifiantes" de Charzat; Djamel Bouras, candidat MoDem mais pas modèle; La gauche lyonnaise veut encore y croire; and several about the Malek Boutih case.
There is also a nice overview on grioo.com: Législatives : résultats des candidats de la diversité au 1er tour presents nine candidates who made it to the second round, including several not mentioned above, and also lists eight who didnt.
Striking in the sum total of candidates mentioned in any of these sources (I've counted 27 in all) is that about one-third of the candidates mentioned are women; and that almost as many ran for the conservative UMP (7) as for the Socialist Party (9), with the MoDem trailing at 3.
Whether the total number of candidates from immigrant background who made it to the second round is half a dozen or nine, or a dozen, and whether one, two or three will eventually be elected, their share on a total of 577 electoral districts remains dismal.
On the other hand, every single minority candidate who makes it through already marks progress, as the Expatica article pointed out: "None of the outgoing deputies in the 555 seats from mainland France are from visible minorities even though France is home to Europe's biggest Muslim community of about five million."
Parliament
[..] For more information about all of this, see [also]: Women make gains in French parliament, but minorities struggle [..]
- Of the at least 27 first-round candidates in the parliamentary elections from visible minorities, and the about a dozen candidates who made it into the second round, just one minority candidate was elected into Parliament. George Pau-Langevin, born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, was elected in eastern Paris for the Socialists.
- No Muslim was elected. The result was no better than that of 1997, in which only Togolese-born Kofi Yamgnane was elected, as Socialist deputy from Brittany, only to be defeated in the next elections.
- This was in contrast with the greater success of the 'diversity push' when it came to electing more women: 107 of the 577 seats went to women candidates, a jump of 31.
- Tidbit: France actually has a law imposing gender parity since 2000 on candidate lists, but that the parties routinely prefer to pay the hefty fines rather than run more women.
[..] Several times, expectations were largely overturned, due to the swing away from the UMP towards the Socialist Party in the second round.
It meant that Nora Remadnia, a UMP candidate in Marseille running in one of the three races I'd highlighted as interesting, came nowhere as close to being elected as expected. Similarly, Salem Kacet, a UMP candidate in Roubaix who'd been given good odds, got stuck at just 43%, apparently getting little of either the MoDem or the Front National vote.
On the other hand, two Socialist candidates who'd been given little chance of winning scored unexpected near-wins. Safia Otokore, standing in a town near Paris, got over 48% of the vote after being behind 27% to 44% after the first round. Faouzi Lamdaoui, who'd been behind 27% to 41% after the first round in the Paris suburb of Argentueil, got closer still, at 49%.
The candidates are listed in the sequence they were mentioned in the email.
Nora Remadnia Preziosi; candidate for the UMP; Bouches du rhone, 7th district (part of Marseille)
Lost; with 42,2%; against Socialist candidate Sylvie Andrieux.
Kamal Hamza; UMP; Seine saint-Denis, 3th district (Aubervilliers, Paris suburbs)
Lost; with 38,5%; against Socialist Daniel Goldberg.
Jeannette Bougrab; UMP; Paris, 18th district (18th arrondissement)
Lost; with 36,7%; against Socialist Cristophe Caresche.
Lynda Asmani; UMP; Paris, 5th district (10th arrondissement)
Lost; with 36,8%; against Socialist Tony Dreyfus.
Najat Belkacem; Socialist; Rhone, 4th district (part of Lyon)
Lost; with 43,4%; against UMP candidate Doninique Perben.
Salem Kacet; UMP; Nord, 8th district (part of Roubaix)
Lost; with 43,1%; against Socialist Dominique Baert.
George Pau-Langevin; Socialist; Paris, 21st district (20th arrondissement)
Won; with 62,7%; against UMP candidate Raoul Delamare
Jean-Claude Beaujour; UMP; Paris, 6th district (parts of 11th and 20th arrondissements)
Lost; with 30,9%; against Socialist Daniele Hoffman-Rispal
And additionally, from the ones listed in the grioo.com article "résultats des candidats de la diversité au 1er tour":
Safia Otokoré; Socialist; Yvelines, 11th district (Trappes)
Lost; with 48,3%; against UMP candidate Jean-Michel Fourgous
Faouzi Lamdaoui; Socialist; Val d'Oise, 5th district (Argenteuil, Paris suburbs)
Lost; with 49,0%; against UMP candidate Georges Mothron
Six Emmanuel Njoh; UMP; Val de Merne, 9th district (Vitry-sur-Seine, Paris suburbs)
Lost; with 35,0%; against Socialist Rene Rouquet.
Since his inauguration as France's president in May, Nicolas Sarkozy has appeared as a whirlwind of activity following the often-lethargic rule of his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.
There is the creation of a much-criticised Ministry of National Identity to address France's immigration concerns. There was Sarkozy calling for an end to Franco-African diplomacy based on personal relations between leaders and more on "partnership between nations equal in their rights and responsibilities."
Sarkozy successfully lobbied a recent EU meeting for the removal of the words "free and undistorted competition" from a list of the body's core objectives and announced an 11 billion euro economic stimulus package that all but blew out of the water any chance of balancing France's budget.
Most recently, there was the passage of a government measure calling for a drastic overhaul of the country's higher education system over the next five years.
Sarkozy has also managed to successfully woo former Socialist stalwarts into his own sphere of influence, often leaving the party seemingly unsure of how to react. Whether the opposition Socialists can iron out their differences regarding some of their own more controversial proposals - including a sharp hike in France's minimum wage and a more expansive application of provisions for a 35-hour working week - remains to be seen.
For Sarkozy's part, reaching across ideological boundaries appears to be an attempt to re-brand himself after bruising general elections where he was accused of placating far-right political currents. "I think what Sarkozy is trying to do is a more consensual and less confrontational way of conducting politics while at the same time undermining the Socialist Party," says Florence Faucher-King.
The FT interviews Fadela Amara, the new French junior minister of urban policy. Previously an outspoken civil rights activist, she is best known for her work in France's tough immigrant suburbs. One of 10 children born to Algerian immigrants in a housing project, a high-school dropout and auto-didact, she is by her own admission an unlikely addition to the government. Amara credits her father for instilling her sense of solidarity. He worked as a day labourer on construction sites and sent money back to his home village in Algeria, while setting some aside for the poor in the family's neighbourhood as well.
Her political awakening came when her five-year-old brother was killed by a hit-and-run driver, and the police blamed Amara's parents "and treated us like dirt". She says she was not surprised at the 2005 riots, describing the situation as a "pressure cooker waiting to explode". "It is difficult to ask young people to respect the values of the republic when the state has failed to keep its end of the social bargain. I am against all forms of violence, but if young people are lashing out, it is also because they don't know where to channel their frustrations."
But she strongly disagrees with the idea that integration has completely failed. "We have made progress," she argues. "We have a middle class made up of second-generation immigrants." "The problem is they are not visible. It is a step-by-step process [..]. Today there are TV presenters who are black and Arab. But that was not the case three years ago."
In the cites, however, ghettoisation means that paternalistic cultures among immigrant families have become corrupted to create misogynistic codes. After high-profile cases of violence against young Muslim women in 2003, Amara organised a national march, and found herself head of France's noisiest new feminist movement: "Ni Putes, Ni Soumises" [neither whores, nor submissives].
Asked why a self-described die-hard socialist would join Sarkozy's government, Amara says, "Because I want things to change". Her main priority is to renovate decrepit housing estates in the poor banlieues, raise standards in local schools and bring jobs there. "I am a woman, a minority, someone from the poor banlieue and a socialist. Through me, there are many symbols. And if Mr Sarkozy wants to appropriate these symbols, all the better." When someone approaches her to sneer, "If you are really a socialist, then you should be helping the left, not the right," Amara rebuts him, saying the Socialists have become a sclerotic party, which "talked but did very little."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has outlined controversial plans to overhaul the pension benefits of half a million mainly public sector workers.
Similar reforms led to weeks of protests in 1995, and unions have hinted there could be more disruption.
Mr Sarkozy plans to cut back the packages given to employees such as train drivers and electricity workers, who until now could retire early. He also promised to relax further the conditions of the 35-hour week.
He also criticised hefty social security payments, saying that handouts discouraged people from working, and stressed his belief that France needed to work harder. "The system is financially unsustainable," Mr Sarkozy told journalists.
[The trade union] Force Ouvriere said the move would lead to the "partial privatisation of the social system".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced more than 22,000 job cuts in the civil service in order to reform the country's bulging public sector. He said thousands of employees retiring next year would not be replaced.
France's transport unions have described the plans as unacceptable, calling for a strike next month.
Speaking at a public management institute in Nantes, President Sarkozy said, "I want a public service that is smaller, better paid and with better career prospects".
"What I am proposing is a cultural revolution, a revolution for changing the way we think, for changing behaviour."
Mr Sarkozy's announcement means that next year one in three retiring public sector workers will not be replaced. That figure could rise in the future.
The announcement came a day after Mr Sarkozy said he planned to reform pension privileges. He said he wanted to cut back the packages given to employees such as train drivers and electricity workers, who until now could retire early.
The last time a government tried to interfere with pension benefits in 1995, France was crippled by three weeks of mass strikes and street protests.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's post-election honeymoon period may be coming to an end, a survey showing an eight percentage point drop in his popularity rating suggested on Saturday.
A total of 61 percent of those surveyed in September were either very happy with or generally satisfied with Sarkozy, down from 69 percent last month.
Thirty-six percent were very or rather unhappy with his performance, up seven percentage points.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon also saw his popularity rating fall, with 56 percent of those surveyed either very happy with or generally satisfied, down from 63 percent in August.
En deux mois, le chef de l'Etat a perdu dix points, passant de 65% à 55% des Français qui lui font "confiance pour affronter efficacement les principaux problèmes qui se posent au pays".
Au total, 37% des sondés disent ne pas faire confiance au président Sarkozy, contre 33% en août et 29% en juillet.
D'août à septembre, François Fillon passe de 53% à 47% de satisfaits.
French lawmakers are to examine an immigration bill which includes language tests for immigrants and DNA tests to verify ties between immigrants and relatives they want to bring to France. It has triggered a wave of criticism among rights groups and also from within the Sarkozy government.
France's secretary of state for towns, Fadela Amara, said the DNA test proposal hurt her "as the daughter of immigrants". She said, "What bothers me is that this heaps shame on foreigners who want to come to us. That shocks me."
The draft immigration law that was approved by the French National Assembly on Thursday is causing controversy over an amendment that would allow immigrants to use a DNA test to prove blood lines to relatives they want to bring into the country. Critics point out that in French law, adopted and out-of-wedlock children are treated as equal to siblings who are direct descendants of a parent. They also worry about having the state require tests that might reveal to a migrant worker that his child is not his child.
Cabinet ministers such as Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Fadela Amara have expressed their disapproval. A Socialist deputy argued it would be unthinkable to ask a father registering his child's birth to take a paternity test.
Faced with this criticism, the government argued the DNA tests could be undertaken only at the request of the immigrants and they could speed up application for family reunions by cutting out the verification of documents that can take years. The bill must now go to the Senate for consideration.
French MPs have passed a bill toughening up immigration laws. The bill requires immigrants to take a test in their home countries on their knowledge of the French language and values, and the applicant will have to have more financial resources than before. A controversial clause allows DNA testing for proving family relations.
The law would also controversially allow population censuses on the basis of racial and ethnic origins, to facilitate research on the "diversity of the origins of the persons, of discrimination and integration."
Sarkozy faces growing unease over jobs for Socialists
Expatica
4 October 2007
President Nicolas Sarkozy faced growing unease inside his ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party Wednesday over rumours that he intends to invite more opposition Socialists into the government.
The president has made no secret of his intention to continue the policy of "openness" which has already brought several leading left-wingers into the cabinet -- most notably Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
But rumours that the next phase could introduce such emblematic figures as former culture minister Jack Lang and Socialist Party (PS) spokesman Julien Dray have prompted a rare outburst of rebellion from UMP deputies.
"For the right, Jack Lang is a red rag. That would really be going too far," said former minister Francois Goulard.
Reacting to suggestions of Dray's possible appointment, UMP deputy George Tron said: "This whole openness thing is a stunt. I have not a single policy in common with Dray. It's time to stop this poaching of individuals who bring nothing to the ruling majority."
"If you put too much salt or pepper on a dish, it becomes inedible," said Nadine Morano, another UMP deputy.
But speaking Tuesday on a visit outside Paris with Martin Hirsch, a prominent left-winger who is the cabinet's High Commissioner for Solidarity against Poverty, Sarkozy said he planned to keep as wide a government as possible.
"I am always looking out for new talents... A head of state is someone who brings together, who holds out his hands, opens his arms. Sectarianism and clannishness are not part of my spirit. Do not count on me to head a UMP state," he said.
Behind criticism of Sarkozy from some UMP members is resentment at being overlooked for positions, despite their loyalty in the long campaign before the May elections.
However others concede that coopting opposition figures may be the best way to ensure the passage of tough economic reforms, which in the past have been defeated because of a too close identification with the right.
Neither Lang nor Dray have given any hint that they would accept a post in government, though Lang has agreed to sit on a committee set up by Sarkozy to examine possible reforms to France's ruling institutions.
In addition to Kouchner and Hirsch, the government also includes former socialists Eric Besson, Jean-Marie Bockel and Jean-Pierre Jouyet and the women's rights campaigner Fadela Amara. Several centrists, including Defence Minister Herve Morin, are also in the cabinet.
The rumblings come amid signs of divergent views between Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon over the pace of reform.
Fillon and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde appear to be straining to move more quickly with potentially unpopular measures in order to improve France's calamitous public finances.
Quote:Sarkozy faces growing unease over jobs for Socialists
Expatica
4 October 2007
......
The rumblings come amid signs of divergent views between Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon over the pace of reform.
Fillon and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde appear to be straining to move more quickly with potentially unpopular measures in order to improve France's calamitous public finances.
Sarkozy praises French Muslims
The Scotsman
Mon 1 Oct 2007
French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised the country's Muslim minority on Monday as peaceful and tolerant, adding that any extremists who wanted to upset this calm would be expelled from France.
He spoke at an iftar dinner breaking the Ramadan fast at the Grand Mosque of Paris, whose moderate rector Dalil Boubakeur is head of the French Muslim Council (CFCM) that Sarkozy created in 2003 when he was interior minister.
"Thanks to you, our country has not seen any increase in tensions in relations between Muslims and non-Muslims," the president told Boubakeur and other CFCM leaders.
"Many envy us for this peaceful situation. Some extremists want to end it," he said. France's five-million-strong Muslim minority is the largest in Europe.
"Those who want to kill or commit violence in the name of Islam, who detest others in the name of Islam have nothing to do on French soil," he said. "Those who do not want to spread the message (of peace) will be expelled from French territory."
France occasionally expels radical preachers, sometimes with much fanfare and sometimes quietly. [..]
After praising religious tolerance in France, Sarkozy urged Muslim countries to treat their non-Muslim minorities better.
"In France, we respect those who practice Islam," he said. "I wish countries with Muslim majorities had the same respect for differences and other people's identities."
Without mentioning names, he said some members of his own government were observing Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month due to end around October 13.
Justice Minister Rachida Dati and State Secretary for Towns Fadela Amara come from a Muslim background. Amara accompanied Sarkozy to the dinner at the mosque.
Neighboring Switzerland just gave the largest majority of any party since WW1 to the party whose platform includes the pledge to ban construction of minarets on Swiss territory.... Sarkozy must be livid with envy
Neighboring Switzerland just gave the largest majority of any party since WW1 to the party whose platform includes the pledge to ban construction of minarets on Swiss territory
High Seas wrote:Neighboring Switzerland just gave the largest majority of any party since WW1 to the party whose platform includes the pledge to ban construction of minarets on Swiss territory
The nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP) did indeed get the best result any individual Swiss party ever got since WW1.
However, the nature of the eternally fragmented Swiss party system means that "largest majority" is not exactly the right phrase here. The SVP got all of 29% of the vote.
Guy Môquet was 17 when he was executed by the Nazis in 1941, and became a symbol of the French Resistance. President Sarkozy says Môquet is just the kind of patriot the country needs today, and designated last Monday "Guy Môquet Day."
But events didn't go smoothly. Môquet's farewell letter was mandatory reading in high schools, but the teachers union SNES urged members not to participate. Teachers accused Sarkozy of interfering in the curriculum, turning history into propaganda, and using history to reap political advantage. The union asked, "Can we take the risk that the event will transform the high school into a political arena?"
Môquet was an unusual choice of symbol for a conservative president: he was a young communist, condemned along with dozens of other communists in reprisal for the murder of a German officer. But that was probably why Sarkozy chose him: he has worked to bridge the political divide between left and right, and brought opposition figures into his government. But critics accused him of trying to blot out Môquet's politics to claim him for France's right.
Quote:
Partial summary:
Quote:French lawmakers are to examine an immigration bill which includes language tests for immigrants and DNA tests to verify ties between immigrants and relatives they want to bring to France. It has triggered a wave of criticism among rights groups and also from within the Sarkozy government.
France's secretary of state for towns, Fadela Amara, said the DNA test proposal hurt her "as the daughter of immigrants". She said, "What bothers me is that this heaps shame on foreigners who want to come to us. That shocks me."
France's parliament has passed a new bill that introduces tighter curbs on foreigners hoping to join relatives in France - including possible DNA tests. Supporters say it will aid genuine applicants and cite similar laws in other countries. Critics say the law is racist and question the use of genetics as a basis for being allowed into France. The bill has been hugely controversial, prompting street protests across the country.
