Sarcelles - two months after anti-Semitic violence at pro-Palestinian rally

"Is there a ‘rising tide’ of anti-Semitism in the West?" asked the BBC on its site back in August 2014.

While the figures the Beeb presented in its piece seemed to question newspaper headlines suggesting a significant increase, it admitted that anti-Semitism clearly remained a problem.

And this clip from a recent edition of France 2's investigative news magazine "Complément d'enquête" will surely only fuel the debate here in France.

(screenshot from "Complément d'enquête")

The TV crew revisited Sarcelles, "a multi-religious suburb north of Paris with a vibrant Jewish community", the scene of attacks on Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue during a banned demonstration in July again the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

It was to "take the temperature" among those living in the town, two months after the events, and one young man they interviewed had no qualms expressing sentiments which, to say the least, were shocking.

So much so that the mayor of Sarcelles, François Pupponi, condemned the "calls of hatred and murder" expressed during the interview and said on his Facebook page that he would ask the justice minister, Christine Taubira, to "begin proceedings" against the individuals interviewed.

The clip is in French, of course, and you can judge for yourselves whether the interviewee was fully aware of what he was saying or whether it was a more a case of a puffed-up few minutes of (hateful) television "fame".

Face caméra, un jeune de Sarcelles déclare: "Ici, les juifs on les tue si on veut !" sur WAT.tv 

Whoopee! Another week in French politics with best buddies, Manuel Valls (again) and Inspecteur Gadget

The political week in France began with the Socialist party holding its annual summer shindig in La Rochelle.

Well strictly speaking it was last weekend, but hey ho. Give a guy a little temporal (as related to time rather than spiritual) break please.

The great and the glorious were there, including the party's new best friends, the interior minister Manuel Valls and the justice minister Christine Taubira.

We know they're now best buddies, in spite of the former recently trying to tell the latter how to do her job properly, because Valls said so, insisting that they were both "working hand in hand to achieve the same thing - a fair and effective policy."

Valls was certainly good value for money.  Up there on the podium, he looked ready to implode (he so often does, don't you think?) as he seethed, spluttered, yelled and sometimes cooed his way through 20 minutes. There's no doubting, he sure can orate.


Valls: "L'immigration doit être régulée et... par BFMTV

Sadly the same could not be said for his immediate boss, the prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who closed the conference on Sunday.

Sure he tried to bring the whole shebang to a conclusion with a speech showing who was in charge (and don't say "nobody") and a warning that, "Personal games could ruin the collective efforts."

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/la-rochelle-quand-jean-marc-ayrault-prend-les-commandes_1275780.html

But really. Even if he thought anyone was listening and taking note, did he honestly believe they were taking any notice?

A far less apoplectic Valls (yes that man again) popped up on the revamped "Le Grand Journal" on Canal + on Monday evening.

He was the guest of honour as the show's new anchor, Antoine de Caunes, and his team went on the attack.

That photo spread with his wife in Paris Match, his own personal crusading Tour de France over the summer, and the media love-in for a man who clearly knew where the cameras were.

"Wasn't it all a bit too reminiscent of a certain former French president," he was asked.

The interior minister more than held his own - and kept his cool. But it was a little like watching a double of the real thing (Nicolas Sarkozy, just in case you were wondering) in action.

LE GRAND JOURNAL du 26/08/13 - Part. 2 Valls, la star de l'été

The programme would probably have been a good deal more interesting had another guest not been disinvited.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit had also been slated to appear, but the invitation was withdrawn at the last moment because "Valls wanted to be the only one on the programme" according to Cohn-Bendit who is now a political commentator on Europe 1 radio.

"It's not important. In fact it's rather amusing really," he said. "But it's symptomatic of what I call a 'presidential virus' in which he (Valls) is trying to project a presidential image."



Tous candidats à l’élection présidentielle ! par Europe1fr

Nothing of the sort, according to the show's production team.

It was simply that the same sort of editorial decision had been taken as similar programmes on other channels: namely to concentrate on a debriefing after the conference in La Rochelle.

http://www.jeanmarcmorandini.com/article-309004-cohn-bendit-affirme-avoir-ete-deprogramme-du-grand-journal-a-la-demande-de-manuel-valls-la-reponse-de-la-production.html

Ho hum. We believe you.

Back to Ayrault for a moment, and the prime minister finally unveiled the government's proposals for pension reform...or non-reform as the "reformettes" have also been described.

Although it's an important subject, pensions can also appear terribly tedious stuff and successive French governments have shown a talent for regularly tinkering with a complex system and making it even more incomprehensible.

The current government is no exception.

But just in case you want to try to understand what is being proposed, here's a link to a piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Finally, the French president, François Hollande, came out of his hidey hole this week to deliver an impassioned speech on the situation in Syria.

"France is ready to punish (ooh puhleeze, who the heck was his speechwriter?) those who took the heinous decision to gas innocents," he told an annual meeting in Paris of French ambassadors from around the world, undoubtedly striking fear into the very heart of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

And while Hollande waits for other international leaders to decide what, if any, action should be taken, the weekly news magazine Le Point was once again poking fun at him with a very telling front cover of its latest edition.

It features a head and shoulder shot of a half-smiling Hollande, left hand held aloft and the gloriously appropriate headline "Inspecteur Gadget"...described by that online bible of all that is true and factual, Wikipedia, as "a clumsy, dim-witted cyborg detective".

Gadget, that is. Not Hollande.

Or there again.

That's all for this week folks.

Have a great weekend.

screenshot front cover Le Point

A week in French politics: hard hats and handbags at dawn

They might be on holiday, but there's no getting away from the men and women (politicians) who run  France (or would like to us to think that's what they're doing).

And for your edification, dear reader, here is this week's subjective top choices from the wonderful world of French politics.

If you've been watching the (French) news this week on the telly or listening to it on the radio then, among a domestic schedule dominated by the weather, travel conditions and places to visit, you might have heard about "pénibilité du travail".

Don't yawn (as someone did when I hinted I might be tackling the subject). After all, for those who live and work in France, pensions, of which pénibilité is a part (according to the current government) are a matter of future concern.

"Pénibilité" is a word French politicians love using to define those jobs that at one time were considered particularly arduous.

And even though in some cases working conditions may have changed (where are the men shovelling coal on the steam locomotives?) the special retirement provisions to those working in sectors still defined as "pénible" remain as an untouchable in the country's complex pensions system

Anyway the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, fresh from his seven-day break, has been doing his bit for the country this week.

He has been continuing the PR exercise begun by François Hollande who stepped out of the limelight following his week-long whistle stop Tour de France passing the mantle to his prime minister.

And just to prove he was more than up to the job, Ayrault even donned a hard hat and Gaultier-inspired (you wish) uniform as he dragged social affairs minister Marisol Touraine and employment minister Michel Sapin along for an early Tuesday morning photo-op at the building site for a new tramway in the département of Yvelines.

Don't they all look so happy?

Eat your heart out Jean-Paul Gaultier, here come the government Hard Hats
Michel Sapin (left), Jean-Marc Ayrault (centre) and Marisol Touraine
(screenshot France Télévisions)

Top of the agenda during what had been billed as Ayrault's week, was meant to be (until a political flexing of muscles between two  government ministers pushed it off the front page - more on that in a moment) "pénibilité du travail" with the prime minister insisting that it has never really been addressed in previous (and there have been many) pension reforms.

It's all still in the "being mulled over stage", but the idea of how some sort of points system awarded to those working in jobs considered "pénible" would translate into pension rights is...well...to put it simply, not.

Simple that is.

In fact the very concept is probably enough to make even the bravest economist break down in tears of frustration.

But it's something being considered (with just about any and everything else you can imagine) as the government tries to put together a pension reform plan (yes, another one) which it hopes will please everyone but you kind of already know will just end up making a confused situation even more bewildering.

One to watch - perhaps.

Another one to watch is the eventual outcome of the "handbags at dawn" moment between two of the government's big hitters - the interior minister Manuel Valls and the justice minister Christine Taubira.

The opening shots were fired in what the media (and the opposition probably) is hoping will be a "declared war" when Le Monde published details of a "private" letter sent by Valls to Hollande telling him how Taubira should be doing her job (paraphrasing here).

Hollande, not a happy bunny to see two of his top ministers disagreeing so publicly, kept his head down (after all he was supposed to be on his hols) and let Ayrault handle the situation...which he duly did in his own inimitable style...by doing nothing.

Finally - and just to show how "pénible" (aren't you impressed at how rounded this piece is turning out to be?) a French politician's job can be, a little light relief.

It has to be said though, that "comedy" was probably not on the mind of the centre-right l'Union pour un mouvement populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) parliamentarian, Henri Guaino, when he came up with his classic complaint at the beginning of the week.

Guaino, the speechwriter and special advisor to the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been a member of parliament for all of five minutes...

Oh all right then since June 2012.

The poor man obviously thinks he (and other members of the National Assembly) need better treatment - not for when they're retired mind you, but right now.

Parliamentarians are "very poorly paid," he said in an interview with a weekly magazine. "We work in deplorable conditions."

Add as many exclamation marks as you like to both of those preposterous statements.

Oh dear, oh dear. Guaino is obviously struggling on the €5, 148 net a month complemented by monthly expenses of up to €5,770 brut and then up to another €9,000 per month to recruit staff (their spouses?), pay for offices and a whole host of other goodies listed on the National Assembly's official site.



Anybody feel like starting a whip round for Guaino and co?

No?

Oh well.

Continued Happy hols and roll on the parliamentary rentrée (although we have each of the main parties summer conferences to look forward to next...that's if the heavily indebted UMP - cheekily and cleverly dubbed Union pour un mouvement pauvre by the weekly news magazine Le Point) can afford one.

Same-sex marriage legal in France unless...your partner is the "wrong" nationality.

So you're French and either gay or lesbian, and you want to marry your partner.

Well, as you probably know, given all the media coverage there was both domestically and internationally, now you can - in France at least.

Since May 18, just a day after the "wise men" of the Conseil Constitutionnel (Consitutional Council) approved the bill that had made its way through both the National Assembly and the Senate, and the president, François Hollande, had formerly declared it law, France became the 14th country to recognise same-sex marriage.

Less than a fortnight later Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau exchanged vows and rings in front of the  mayor, of Montpellier Hélène Mandroux, and a global audience to become the first same-sex couple to marry officially in France.

Progress indeed.

Montpellier's mayor Hélène Mandroux with Vincent Autin (right) and Bruno Boileau (screenshot AFPTV)

Except the so-called "Mariage pour tous" isn't quite what it's cracked up to be.

Ah yes. You knew there had to be an anomaly didn't you.?

Because if you're French and your partner and prospective spouse happens to come from one of any 11 countries then it's tough, because you won't be able to marry them in France.

A circular from the ministry of justice and signed by the minister who so energetically and eloquently guided the same-sex marriage legislation through parliament, Christine Taubira, says as much.

And the French website StreetPress managed to get its hands on the document and publish it in its entirety (available to download as a pdf file).

The countries concerned - in no particular order other than the one given in the circular - are Poland, Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Cambodia, Laos, Tunisia and Algeria.

Yes a heap of countries with which France has historically had (and continues to have) very close links and a couple (Poland and Slovenia) who are fellow members of the European Union.

None of that matters though because, as far as the ministry of justice is concerned, when couples of the same sex wish to marry and "one of the spouses is a national of one of these countries, the state registrar shall not solemnise the marriage."

On Rue89, another French website, 25-year-old "Lise" (that's the name she chose to use in the interview) who currently lives in Berlin with her partner "Agnieszka" explains how she discovered the couple wouldn't be able to marry in France in spite of the new law because she had made 'the mistake of falling in love with a Polish woman."

It's all apparently to do with individual bilateral agreements between France and each of the 11 countries on the application of the Marriage Act and, for the ministry of justice, it's now up to the foreign ministry to find a solution and "revise the agreements" as necessary.

Nothing like passing the buck.

Hallelujah.

After heated parliamentary and media debate and sometimes violent street protests which only served to fuel the decidedly homophobic views of a very verbal minority, the government still couldn't get the legislation right.

It drafted and passed a bill which, in its detail, could never truly completely deliver on what it had promised - and that's "Mariage pour tous".

François Hollande's irreproachable government and code of conduct - good stuff, isn't it?

Does anyone remember François Hollande saying in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche during the presidential election campaign that he would "undertake not to have anyone around him either at the Élysée or in government who had been accused and/or found guilty by a court"?

(screenshot BFMTV report)

His statement suggested he wanted a "clean" government; one beyond reproach and whose ministers would set a moral example to the rest of the country.

Hey, once the government had been named, Hollande even made them all sign a charter of ethics or code of conduct which, although it didn't explicity make reference to past "misdemeanours", stressed the importance of transparency and "good behaviour".

Among the pledges each minister made were that there would be no conflict of interests, no accepting private presents or invitations that could be called into question, the respect of collective responsibility for decisions taken by the government, to give up any other local or regional political offices they might hold.

And on the more "normal" level they were obliged to travel by train rather than 'plane whenever possible and ensure that they respected the rules of the road when driving or being driven.

Wonderful stuff, isn't it?

But back to that initial undertaking - the one to be surrounded by those with an unblemished past - legally speaking.

How's he doing?

Well for starters there's the prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault who, back in 1997 when he was mayor of Nantes was handed down "a suspended prison sentence for favouritism in the allocation of a city hall contract".

Then there's the foreign minister Laurent Fabius who was tried but acquitted of manslaughter in 1999 in the tainted blood scandal which took place when he was prime minister in the 1980s.

Let's not forget Christine Taubira, the newly-installed justice minister who back in 2004 was found guilty by an industrial tribunal in an unfair dismissal case brought against her by a former parliamentary assistant.

And bringing us bang up to date of course is the case of Arnaud Montebourg the minister of industrial renewal who has been found guilty this week of publicly insulting the management of the ferry company SeaFrance last year.


All right, they can all be "explained"  - they have - and justification made to show that in each case the minister has been "legally rehabilitated" (what?) or the case brought against them didn't have an impact on their "personal integrity".

But - phew.

Barely two weeks into a new government.

What the heck was that campaign pledge all about?

Hot air, it would seem.

And the charter of ethics? Well let's see just how many exceptions are made to that as the days, weeks, months, years roll by.


Gouvernement Hollande : polémique autour des... par BFMTV