First Cornish pasties shook Westminster, now Paris faces its own baked-goods political storm after the humble pain au chocolat was hijacked by right[-]wing politics.
It began at a rally on the Côte d'Azur this weekend when the hardline Jean-François Copé, fighting a tough race to take over Nicolas Sarkozy's right[-]wing UMP party, served a pastry-related anecdote that has been repeating on him ever since.
Having already complained of what he called "anti-white racism" on French estates, Copé said he identified with "exasperated" parents who, after a hard day's work, got home to find their child had had his pain au chocolat "snatched" from him outside the school gates by "thugs" who said: "There must be no eating during Ramadan." He then tweeted: "There are neighbourhoods in France where children can't eat their pain au chocolat because it's Ramadan." Read on and comment » | Angelique Chrisafis | Thursday, October 11, 2012
