French Right Wing Hijacks the pain au chocolat

GUARDIAN – SHORTCUTS BLOG: First we had pasty-gate. Now an alleged incident involving the humble French pastry is being used by right[-]wing politicians in the battle to take over Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party

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

Nicolas Sarkozy's Party Rocked by Own Sex Scandal

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy's party has been hit with its own sex scandal after two women accused one of the French president's ministers of sexually harassing them.

The latest scandal to rock French politics came less than two weeks after Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief and leading Socialist presidential challenger, was charged with attempting to rape a hotel chambermaid in New York.

This time the alleged perpetrator comes from Mr Sarkozy's own ruling UMP party. Georges Tron, the public works minister, was accused of indecently assaulting the female workers, aged 34 and 36, after offering them "foot massages".

A local prosecutor yesterday confirmed the women have filed formal sexual harassment complaints.

The 52-year-old minister, who is also the mayor of Draveil, south of Paris, is alleged to have committed the assaults between 2007 and 2010. What started out as regular "therapeutic" reflexology sessions turned into full-blown sexual assault, the two women claimed.

They told Le Parisien newspaper they were encouraged to break their silence following Mr Strauss-Kahn's arrest. The former IMF chief's arrest could now spark a rash of sexual harassment complaints against French politicians. » | Henry Samuel, Paris | Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Kantonalwahlen in Frankreich: Sarkozys Partei verliert - Front National legt zu
FRANFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Im Stichwahlgang der Kantonalwahlen in Frankreich hat die rechtsextreme Partei Front National starke Stimmenzuwächse verzeichnet. Die Partei von Präsident Sarkozy UMP verlor dagegen massiv an Stimmen.

In der französischen Präsidentenpartei UMP ist am Montag ein Richtungsstreit über den Umgang mit dem rechtsextremen Front National (FN) entbrannt. Im Stichwahlgang der Kantonalwahlen am Sonntag hatte die von Marine Le Pen geführte Partei große Stimmengewinne verzeichnet. In den 403 Kantonen, in denen FN-Kandidaten im zweiten Wahlgang antreten konnten, steigerte die Partei ihr Ergebnis von 620.000 Stimmen im ersten Wahlgang auf 915.000 Stimmen im zweiten Wahlgang. » | F.A.Z./mic. | Montag, 28. März 2011

French Ex-P.M. Forms Party to Go After Sarkozy
THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS (Reuters) - Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced the creation of a new center-right party on Thursday set to challenge bitter rival President Nicolas Sarkozy in elections in two years' time.

The move by one of Sarkozy's fiercest critics within his own conservative camp comes as the president strains to recover from a crushing defeat in regional elections at the weekend.

"I have decided to create a new political movement that will be free and independent," Villepin told a news conference, adding that the party will be launched in Paris on June 19.

Villepin, an aristocratic former diplomat, said his movement would advocate a more equitable approach. "The motto of our struggle will be a republic of solidarity," he said.

Villepin's announcement is one of a number of signs that preparations for the 2012 presidential elections are already under way and that Sarkozy, previously seen as a near-certainty for re-election, may face a tougher race than expected.

In past years Sarkozy has enjoyed the spectacle of seeing Socialist opponents bicker among themselves, but a Villepin candidacy in the 2012 poll could split the conservative vote and highlight divisions in Sarkozy's UMP party.

CONSERVATIVE DISCONTENT

The president has focused on soothing discontent among center-right allies since the weekend election rout, dropping a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, reassuring farmers and hammering a tough line on security and immigration.

He also moved to undermine Villepin's nascent movement by recruiting to the government Georges Tron, one of the former prime minister's closest allies, in a reshuffle on Monday.

Villepin said his new party would stand for a more socially responsible conservatism, called for higher income and corporate taxes and said Sarkozy should drop the "fiscal shield" that protects the wealthy from paying more than 50 percent in tax.

Villepin said that while the 10 percent best paid in France now earn up to 230 times more than the 10 percent lowest paid, compared to 20 times in the 1970s and '80s.

"This is intolerable. Are we still a democracy, are we still a republic when the wage differences are so violent?" he said. >>> Reuters | Thursday, March 25, 2010

LE FIGARO: Villepin lance un mouvement politique «indépendant» : Devant un parterre de journalistes, l'ex-premier ministre s'est livré à un réquisitoire contre la politique de Nicolas Sarkozy et n'a pas exclu de se présenter en 2012. >>> Par Thibault Lieurade, Bastien Hugues | Jeudi 25 Mars 2010

De Villepin gründet Anti-Sarkozy-Partei: Ex-Premier will Unzufriedenheit im konservativen Lager ausnutzen
NZZ ONLINE: Der ehemalige französischen Premierminister Dominique de Villepin fordert seinen langjährigen Rivalen Präsident Sarkozy offen heraus. Er gründet eine eigene Partei, deren Name noch nicht feststeht. Fernziel ist offenbar die Präsidentschaft.

Dominique de Villepin will mit einer neuen Partei die politische Landschaft in Frankreich verändern. «Wir brauchen einen Politikwechsel», sagte der frühere Premierminister am Donnerstag auf einer Pressekonferenz in Paris. Der Name der neuen Gruppierung soll am 19. Juni bekanntgegeben werden. Wo sie im politischen Spektrum stehen soll, war zunächst unklar. >>> ddp | Donnerstag, 25. März 2010

Sarkozy's UMP Party Dealt Electoral Blow

No Burqas in France? Ruling Party Moves to Ban Veils in Public
A woman wears a burqa as she shops with her family at a street market in Roubaix northern France, August 9, 2009. France's ruling party has announced plans to present a bill to ban Islamic veils in all public places. Photograph: The Christian Science Monitor
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: The new effort to outlaw the full-length veil - niqabs and burqas - in public trumps earlier efforts to ban it only in some official buildings. The move comes at a time when French Muslims say they are being targeted as outsiders or not fully French.

Paris: The French ruling party of President Nicolas Sarkozy now affirms it will present a bill to ban full-length Islamic veils in all public places in France. It won't wait for the results of a parliamentary inquiry into the all-covering niqab and burqa to be published. The move adds fuel to an increasingly hot debate on French identity that has minorities here upset.

A nationwide identity debate, engineered by the ruling UMP party last month, has evolved into an embarrassingly unruly discussion about Muslims and northern Africans in France. And it comes on the heels of a surprise vote in neighboring Switzerland last month to outlaw the construction of new minarets at Muslim worship sites.

The UMP effort to outlaw the full-length veil in public trumps earlier efforts to ban it only in some official buildings, and comes at a time when French Muslims say they are being targeted as outsiders or not fully French.

Yet UMP party leader Jean-François Cope yesterday said veils that cover a woman’s entire face are a “violation of individual liberty” and a “negation” of one’s identity and that of others in a public milieu.

Under the proposed law, women would not be able to move in public with their faces fully covered. The legal rendering is that burqas and all-covering niqabs are a public order issue, and not a religious practice issue - as is the French ban on headscarves in schools, which has been carried out to uphold French secularism, known as laïcité.

Offenders wearing veils would receive a fine – though lawmakers now say there will be a period of mediation following the initial charge. Vote expected in early Jan >>> Robert Marquand, Staff writer | Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Burka-Verbot: Viel Lärm um nichts?
DIE PRESSE: Studie relativiert die Debatte: Nur 400 Frauen verschleiern sich in Frankreich völlig. Die UMP warnt vor der Tendenz der Statistik.

PARIS. Seit Wochen diskutieren französische Parlamentarier, ob die völlige Verschleierung muslimischer Frauen in Frankreich verboten werden soll. Sogar eine parlamentarische Kommission wurde eingesetzt, um gesetzliche Maßnahmen gegen das Tragen von Burka und Niqab zu prüfen.

Nun liefert das Innenministerium mit der Publikation einer Zahl, welche die meisten überrascht, zusätzliche Nahrung für die Debatte. Einer bezüglich der Methodik nicht genauer beschriebenen Zählung des (normalerweise dank Nachrichtendienste gut informierten) Ministeriums nach gebe es heute in Frankreich genau 367 Frauen, die sich durch Burka oder Niqab völlig verschleiern.

In der Mehrzahl soll es sich um jüngere Frauen handeln, die kürzlich zum Islam konvertierten oder mit ihrem Auftreten provozieren wollten. Wenn es also im ganzen Land weniger als 400 sind, werde womöglich mit der ausgiebig in den in- und ausländischen Medien kommentierten Debatte doch viel Lärm um (fast) nichts gemacht, geben nun einige Zeitungen zu bedenken. Auch der Rektor der Großen Moschee von Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, meint, die laut Behörden wirklich geringe Zahl von Burkas beweise nur, dass kein Anlass bestehe, eine landesweite Debatte zu dieser Frage zu lancieren. >>> Rudolf Balmer, DiePresse | Donnerstag, 30. Juli 2009

LE MONDE: La loi et la burqa

Le phénomène est si marginal que la direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI) s'est risquée - au risque de faire sourire - à l'évaluer à l'unité près : selon sa note en date du 8 juillet, dont Le Monde a eu connaissance, 367 femmes en France - soit, en moyenne, une sur près de 90 000 - porteraient la burqa ou le niqab, ce vêtement long et sombre qui voile entièrement le corps et le visage de certaines musulmanes.

Sans le chiffrer aussi précisément, la sous-direction de l'information générale (SDRI) confirme, dans une note rédigée une semaine plus tôt, qu'il s'agit là d'un "phénomène ultraminoritaire".

Ces deux premières évaluations officielles viennent éclairer d'un jour nouveau le débat qui a brusquement surgi dans notre pays, au printemps, après que 65 députés de droite et de gauche eurent envisagé de créer une commission d'enquête sur ce sujet. Voire de légiférer. Séance tenante, chacun a été invité à décider de l'opportunité d'interdire un phénomène dont personne ne connaissait l'ampleur. Evitant de se prononcer sur ce point, Nicolas Sarkozy s'est quand même senti obligé d'évoquer la question lors de son discours devant le Congrès, le 22 juin. "Je veux le dire solennellement : la burqa n'est pas la bienvenue sur le territoire de la République française", avait alors déclaré le chef de l'Etat, tout en précisant qu'il ne s'agissait pas là d'un "problème religieux". >>> | Mercredi 29 Juillet 2009