Sarkozy sidesteps minister's racial slur

It's a story that has been making the headlines here in France for over a week now; the incident when the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, apparently made a remark which many interpreted as being racist.

It occurred at the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party's summer conference at Seignosse in southwestern France at the beginning of the month.

Hortefeux was captured on video saying in the presence of Amine Benalia-Brouch, a young party activist of Algerian origin, that he (Benalia-Brouch), "Doesn't match the prototype. We always need one. It's when there are lots of them that there are problems."

When the video made its way on to the Net, the reactions and criticisms came thick and fast.



The opposition Socialist party and groups representing ethnic minorities and those campaigning against racism roundly condemned the remarks, with some calling for the minister's resignation.

And the spokesman for the Socialist party, Benoît Hamon questioned what Hortefeux was "still doing in the government".

But just as quickly, colleagues of Hortefeux leapt to the minister's defence.

The prime minister, François Fillon, told national TF1 television that the interior minister had been "the victim of a fairly scandalous campaign of defamation," and that, "I reiterate that he (Hortefeux) has my full support."

The environment minister, Jean-Louis Borloo insisted that "Brice Hortefeux is anything but a racist," and Fadela Amara the junior minister for urban policy and herself of North African origin, shrugged off the remark as being part of Hortefeux's "sense of humour".

It seems that Hortefeux is well known for making jokes that aren't always appreciated.

From Brussels though came a somewhat dissenting voice within the UMP in the shape of the reaction from a former cabinet colleague, Rachida Dati, also of North African descent.

Now a member of the European parliament, Dati said on national radio that although she hadn't seen the clip but had only read the transcript in the newspaper, she still found the remark inappropriate.

"I don't agree that it is humourous rather that it's tactless," she said.

"For me racism has nothing to do with humour."

For his part, Hortefeux has not apologised for the remarks he made but has said that he "regretted" the resulting controversial and "unnecessary" debate that followed.

And he had the support of Benalia-Brouch, who said that he didn't understand why there had been such a debate surrounding the video and that there had been no racist intent in what the minister had said and no offence taken.

But noticeably quiet up until now has been the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The two men are close political allies and long-time friends, and indeed it was Sarkozy who brought Hortefeux into the government in June 2007 as immigration minister, then appointed him at the beginning of this year to employment before offering him the job of interior minister in June's reshuffle.

Sarkozy is keen to keep Hortefeux in government, and twice in recent months has taken steps to ensure that he remains there; first by preventing him from taking up the seat he won in June's European parliamentary elections and then by insisting that he should not run in next year's regional presidential elections.

So what has Sarkozy's comment been on the whole matter?

Well according to the national daily, Le Figaro, the French president had rather a different reaction to most on seeing the video.

"When you're a minister you are always on duty," Sarkozy reportedly told him.

"And when you're minister of the interior that counts double," he continued.

"You should have been wearing a suit and tie and not have put in an appearance so casually dressed."