Never mind Alain Juppé - you never stood a chance

Plenty of people thought he was the man for the job; Alain Juppé, one of the founders and the first president of the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) when it saw the light of day back in 2002 as the Union pour la majorité présidentielle (Union for the presidential majority) was the person could break the deadlock between Jean-François Copé and Francois Fillon.

(screenshot BFM TV)

Alas, "Super Juppé", the man who, so many political pundits, fellow party members and even opponents have praised and/or described as a real "Homme d'État" has failed to bind the union that, over the past week, has redefined the term French farce.

Maybe it's not surprising though, because Juppé's career hasn't really been so "Super" after all has it?

Yes, he has held high office; prime minister, defence minister, foreign minister - twice and ecology minister, and he has been mayor of Bordeaux for 15 of the past 17 years so - on the face of it - he definitely has the political credentials.

But he also has all the usual baggage which goes with political office in France.

He was prime minister under Jacques Chirac from 1995 to 1997, drafting into government a number of so-called "Juppettes" - the somewhat sexist and condescending term used to describe his appointing 12 women into ministerial positions - and overseeing a jolly old period when strikes became almost a national pastime in France.

Juppé also "did" the typical political French thing of being convicted in 2004 - for mishandling public funds and finding himself "suspended" from holding political office of any sort for 10 years.

As this is France though, Juppé bounced back (a little faster than expected) and after a "period of rehabilitative convalescence" in Canada, he was re-elected as mayor of Bordeaux in 2006.

Proving his full political credentials had been re-instated, Juppé was back in government - briefly - when Nicolas Sarkozy won the presidential election in 2007.

He was named number two behind the prime minister François Fillon, as minister of ecology, but had to stand down (again) after failing to be elected in the parliamentary elections which followed (Sarkozy had made it a requirement that any minister standing but losing would have to resign).

Towards the end of Sarkozy's reign, Juppé was back in government - this time replacing the disgraced Michèle Alliot-Marie as foreign minister and using all his statesmenship to play second fiddle to the French president as Sarkozy took over affairs in Libya and later in the year bringing about a speedy diplomatic resolution to affairs in Syria - not.

Yes there was no doubt that with such a political pedigree and success rate, Juppé was the obvious choice to mediate between Copé and Fillon.

Now that he has thrown in the towel the party's only hope is probably the very person whose counsel should have been sought in the first place...

The French Socialist party's "vague" programme - according to Martine Aubry

How refreshing to hear a politician apparently telling the truth, no matter how unintentional it might be.

Amid the political comings and goings in France over the weekend and the reactions there have been to Sunday's decision by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to reshuffle his government, came a moment of light relief.

It was, in itself, telling of the still-confused state of the opposition Socialist party and came in the form of a slip of the tongue - for which the media is notoriously unforgiving - from its leader Martine Aubry.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the events that were to unfold later in the day - the resignation of France's "beleaguered" foreign minister Michèle Alliot-Marie and the announcement by the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, of a government reshuffle.

Martine Aubry's "vague-vast" moment (screenshot France 2)

But to those watching Aubry as a guest at the end of the lunchtime news on France 2 television, it can only have brought a smile to the face - and a knowing nod that her "lapsus linguae" probably wasn't too far off the mark.

Aubry was talking about some of the propositions being put forward to form the party's official programme during campaigning for the 2012 presidential elections.

She animatedly outlined the broad thrust of what that programme would be, but in her apparent enthusiasm, somehow only managed to confirm what many of the French must surely fear will be the case.

"We want to give all the French the chance to have a say what they think," she said.

"And at the same time they should respect the rules and respect each other," she continued.

'It's an extremely vague...vast...programme and that's the essential thing."

Yes Aubry managed to correct herself in full flow, but the "vague-vast" blooper had left its mark, with one wise wag commenting on the clip which quickly found its way onto the Net that, "The one time she (Aubry) actually tells the truth, she is criticised for doing so."



We wait with bated breath for more details on the Socialist party's vague and vast programme.

French diplomacy - "amateur, impulsive and lacking coherence "

Those were the words used to describe France's foreign policy and in particular its diplomacy, under its president Nicolas Sarkozy.

They came in an open letter published on Wednesday in the national daily, Le Monde from the Marly group, a collection of French diplomats, retired and serving, of all political persuasions, who were anonymously but collectively airing their concerns.

French foreign affairs and its diplomacy, certainly seem to have come in for a fair bit of scrutiny recently - and this week's events have perhaps only highlighted how much.

Take for example the first visit of a French government minister to Tunisia since that country's Jasmine revolution.

French foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie

In fact there wasn't just one minister but two; Christine Lagarde, the finance minister, and Laurent Wauquiez, the minister for European affairs.

Notice anything odd...apart from the fact that France saw in necessary to send a minister responsible for Europe to a country in North Africa?

Yep, the absence of the foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie (MAM) who had been dispatched to Brazil out of harm's way.

She, MAM, justified her visit to South America as being more "pragmatic".

"The visit was planned over a month ago and Brazil is a country with which we have a very important relationship," she is reported to have said in an informal conversation in the capital Brasilia.

Of course foreign ministers cannot change plans at the last minute to react to changing situations, and her absence in Tunisia had nothing whatsoever to do with the ongoing controversy there has been over her holidays there earlier this year.

So it was left to Lagarde and Wauquiez to build bridges with the finance minister telling journalists that she was confident the relationship between the two countries had not been harmed and Wauquiez mooting the idea of economic aid in the form of a "Marshall plan for Tunisia"

"We've come, not to lecture but to listen to their needs," he said, clearly aware of the fact that there are over 1,200 subsidiaries of French companies in Tunisia and there are interests to be protected.

Strangely silent and hovering in the background was the recently appointed ambassador, Boris Boillon.

He seemed almost, as some commentators back home in France observed, to be paying penance for the insulting remarks he had made to a journalist last week and which resulted in protests calling for his resignation and a subsequent very public apology on national television.

"Sarko boy" was on his best behaviour. Perhaps he had wind of an old can of worms that had been reopened in the form of an appearance he had made on the early evening news magazine Le Grand Journal on Canal + television last November.


Boillon défend Kadhafi (C+)
envoyé par LePostfr. - L'info video en direct.

During the interview Boillon had defended Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, saying he had been a terrorist but wasn't any longer.

"We all make mistakes in life," he said. "And we all have the right to another chance," he said after admitting that Gaddafi had referred to him as "his son".

Boris Boillon (screenshot from Le Grand Journal)

Yes old news - well not so old - but certainly words that seem misplaced with hindsight.

To top it all off was the publication on Wednesday in Le Monde of that open letter from the Marly grop.

"Amateur, impulsive, obsessed with the media and a lack of coherence" were the main criticisms aimed at the current state of affairs.

"Our foreign policy is one of improvisation often undertaken with respect to domestic political considerations," they wrote.

A bold move as far as the weekly news magazine L'Express was concerned and one "which coming from a group of people known for their discretion, indicated how worrying the situation was."

MAM voyage - a spoof on French foreign minister's "free" travels

Amid all the recent controversy surrounding the travel arrangements of the French foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, a spoof agency has gone online offering trips to dream destinations at truly unbelievable prices: in fact no price at all.

MAM-voyage.com apparently has some unreal bargains on its books.



Tabarka in Tunisia is knocked down from €1,299 to €0. And a similar great offer for Abou Simbel in Egypt sees prices slashed from €1,899 to €0.

Further bargains include Iran, Côte d'Ivoire and Burma - all at the ridiculously giveaway prices of...well you probably get the idea.

There's a testimonial from (among others) Michèle M. who says, "We had a fabulous time and thank you once again for the free upgrade during our stopover in Tunis."

And François F. (a nod to the French prime minister François Fillion who admitted having "accepted the hospitality" of former Eyptian president Hosni Mubarak while on holiday on the Nile at the New Year) writes, "Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the magnificence of the Nile ... with MAM it's more than a trip. It's a state of mind"

The whole spoof is topped off with contact details which will put you in touch with the French foreign ministry.

The name MAM-voyage is, of course, a parody of the site of the French tour operator FRAM and at the same time a reference to Alliot-Marie, who is more commonly known in France as MAM.

And it perhaps comes as a welcome, light-hearted relief after the recent controversy surrounding one of France's most experienced and longest-serving government ministers.

MAM (the foreign minister that is) has faced opposition calls to resign ever since it was revealed that she used a private jet while on holiday with her partner Patrick Ollier, who is also a government minister, in Tunisia last December at the beginning of the country's uprising.

The 'plane the couple used was owned by a businessman, Aziz Miled who, it was alleged, had been close to the former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Although she has since admitted that she "regretted her decision to accept the free flight", MAM has also defended Miled saying he had been a longtime friend and a "victim rather than an ally of Ben Ali."

Calls for her resignation have been renewed this week ever since the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that MAM and Ollier weren't alone in Tunisia.

They were joined by Alliot-Marie's elderly parents who reportedly signed a property deal with Miled.

It was a deal which 92-year-old Bernard Marie, the foreign minister's father, told France 24 he had been advised to do because it "would be an investment in 2012."

Facing parliamentarians on Wednesday in the National Assembly, MAM hit back at those calling for her resignation and criticised the latest turn of events.

"You keep repeating lies in the hope that they'll turn into the truth," she said, stressing that the after trying to find something with which to tarnish her reputation, opponents had now decided to focus their attention on her parents.

"Have they done anything illegal? No. This campaign is shameful," she said.

"I just want to say quite simply how objectionable it is that you try to use my parents to attack me politically."

Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier - a year in captivity

It's a year since French journalists Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier were kidnapped in Afghanistan and events are being organised throughout France to mark the anniversary.

Screenshot from YouTube video paying hommage to the two journalists and their colleagues

On Tuesday the families of the two men were invited to the Élysée palace to watch a video sent by the captors to the French authorities and reportedly filmed in November.

It apparently showed the two men alive and "calm but emaciated".

Ghesquière and Taponier, staff journalists for the French public television station France 3, were taken captive, along with three Afghan colleagues - Mohammed Reza, Ghulam and Satar - as they were travelling in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province around 120 kilometres northeast of the capital Kabul.

While the French government has at various times issued statements insisting that negotiations for the release of the two men are progressing, they remain captive and their families have spoken to the media for the first time about their frustrations.

"When the foreign minister) Michele Alliot-Marie speaks of a 'short time', we say to ourselves it's imminent," Taponier's father Gérard told Agence France Presse,

"And then Christmas is already gone... We are still hoping for good news, but it gets you down."

It was a sentiment echoed by Taponier's brother, Thierry, who told Europe 1 radio that they had constantly been promised that things were moving but little seemed to happen.

"We're in a kind of limbo," he said.

"In spite of what government ministers and politicians have said, we have absolutely no idea what's happening there (in Afghanistan) and why things aren't advancing."


Thierry Taponier : "on est dans le flou"
envoyé par Europe1fr. - L'actualité du moment en vidéo.

To mark the anniversary of the two men being taken hostage, a rally will be held outside the Hôtel de Ville (Town hall) in Paris with a portrait of Ghesquière and Taponier being hung from the facade of the building and a candlelight vigil later in the day.

Similar rallies will take place in towns and cities across the country and in Montpellier, the home city of Taponier, a charity concert is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Over the past year the campaign to secure their release has been supported by colleagues, with a constant reminder of their captivity at the end of news bulletins, sports stars who appeared in a video clip appealing for their release, and some of the top names from the French music industry who participated in a free concert in Paris at the end of October.

There's a Comité de soutien (support committee) with a website keeping daily track of activities and reminding us all as to how long the two men have been held.

And you can sign an online petition (it's in French) should you wish to show your support.

Sarkozy's government reshuffle and the Neuilly-sur-Seine "quintuplets"

Much has been made over the past couple of days of the government reshuffle here in France.

For some perhaps it was a case of "out with the old and in with the older" as familiar faces such as Alain Juppé and Xavier Bertrand made a return to the political front line and a whole heap of potential electoral threats in the 2012 presidential race were summarily dispatched to pastures new.

But while the instinct is perhaps to get bogged down in the minutiae of what it all means - or doesn't - politically speaking, there are of course some slightly more irreverent angles on the current line-up of ministers.

There's the fact that Michèle Alliot-Marie, a stalwart of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) now takes over at the foreign ministry; her fourth consecutive top notch job (following defence, interior and justice) since she re-entered the government back in 2002.

And there's the appointment of her partner Patrick Ollier as the minister responsible for parliamentary relations, making the pair perhaps the most politically powerful couple in France, and the subject of a smile or two maybe as they attend their first cabinet meeting together on Wednesday.

If that were not enough, there's also the "bizarre" (as the French website Le Post puts it) coincidence that no fewer than five of the now 31-strong government (cabinet and junior ministers combined) were born in the same place.

Where?

Neuilly-sur-Seine, the swanky, wealthy suburb to the west of the French capital, and very much the former stomping ground of the French president himself.

Rue Berteaux-Dumas, Neuilly-sur-Seine, (from Wikipedia, author - Metropolitan)

Sarkozy was mayor of the town from 1983 to 2002.

He spent much of his childhood in Neuilly and his mother, Andrée, still lives there.

Sarkozy's second son, Jean, is currently a regional councillor representing the town in which he, of course, was born.

As France 2 television points out, the French sociologist Michel Pinçon doesn't find it so surprising that Sarkozy has turned to those whose roots are in a town which "embodies social excellence" even if it is a place which in no way reflects the rest of the country.

"It's the town which has the highest number of people paying wealth tax in France," he writes in the book he co-authored with his wife, Monique, "Le président des riches".

"Even being born in Neuilly and not necessarily living there is of social significance."

All right, so it might be stretching a point somewhat to imply that Neuilly has somehow become Sarkozy's preferred recruiting territory.

But perhaps it's something to mull over during Tuesday evening's hour-plus television broadcast (on three channels) when Sarkozy will doubtless deny the suggestion (should he be asked) that his reshuffle is nothing more than strengthening his position within the UMP to run for re-election in 2012.

Just for the record the Neuilly "quintuplets", as Le Post calls them, are Brice Hortefeux, Frédéric Lefebvre, Bruno Le Maire, Valérie Pécresse and Georges Tron.

French humorist's dream of Sarkozy plane crash

An aeroplane crashes and all aboard are killed.

In total 41 people die in the accident, including the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and all but three of this country's government ministers.

It's a "dream" the French humorist Stéphane Guillon had earlier this week and one he related during his early morning slot on national public radio, France Inter.

Black humour, supposedly, based of course on the accident that took place last weekend in Smolensk in which the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, his wife and several of the country's high-ranking officials were killed.

Guillion begins his piece telling listeners how traumatised he had been by Kaczynski's death and how that was the starting point for him to relate a dream he had in which "Sarkozy had been the victim of a similar accident."

The 46-year-old then throws himself into a description of an imagined commentary on national television of those waiting for the arrival of the president's coffin.

He "treats" listeners to an account of the sight of the two former wives of the French president (Marie-Dominique Culioli and Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz) comforting the current first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy who is "Dressed in black in an outfit made the previous night by designer John Galliano; her face masked as a timely symbol of the country's efforts to pass a law to ban the burqa."

He recounts the arrival of the former prime minister and potential centre-right rival to Sarkozy in the (real) 2012 presidential race, Dominique de Villepin, already "In campaigning mode to succeed the recently deceased" as well as a clutch of possible opposition Socialist party contenders present and waiting for Sarkozy's coffin to be taken off the 'plane.

Among the others who had died in the crash, Guillon tells us, were the interior minister and Sarkozy's long-time friend, Brice Hortefeux (he makes the sign of the cross as he mentions his name), the justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the industry minister Christian Estrosi and the environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo.

A special mention is made of the "sad loss" of one particular target of Guillon's attacks, the immigration minister Eric Besson (again the humorist makes the sign of the cross).

And then the sombre strains of the Garde républicaine strike up as Sarkozy's coffin - the size of a child's - is taken off the 'plane,

It's at his point that the humorist is awoken from his dream "Screaming and convinced that Sarkozy had a twin brother," he said. "Just as the Polish president had."

Guillon has a reputation for hard-hitting humour and he's definitely not frightened to take aim at prominent political figures no matter what their particular hue.

Certainly his spot drove home the enormity of what happened in Smolensk, and especially its impact on Poles, to listeners in France.

After all when the imaginary list of those aboard includes a number of household names (in this country) it's hard not to feel moved.

But was his commentary, all in the name of entertainment with a political edge, appropriate under the circumstances or did it make light of a real tragedy by creating an imagined one?

You can hear and see the full "performance" in the accompanying video - in French of course.

It brought a number of reactions (from those who left comments on the video) ranging from many who found Guillon's chronicle "amusing" or an "essential part of the freedom of expression" to those who felt that he had "overstepped the mark".

Judge for yourselves whether this was indeed "humour" or "bad taste".


Le crash de Nicolas Sarkozy
envoyé par franceinter. - Cliquez pour voir plus de vidéos marrantes.

French justice fails in the murder of Tanja Pozgaj

Tanja Pozgaj should be alive today enjoying life with her 18-month-old son Ibrahima.

Instead she's dead, murdered by her former partner, Mahamadou Doucoure, a man she had reported to the police and local authorities on several occasions as being violent and threatening.

Her family wants to understand why nobody seemed to listen to her pleas.

The justice minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has launched an inquiry into want went wrong and how a system so tragically failed to protect a woman who had sought help.

Because given the facts that have emerged since Pozgaj's body was found, there's surely no doubt that there was a failure within the system.

The fate of the 26-year-old first made the headlines here in France on Tuesday, when she was found stabbed to death at the apartment she shared with Ibrahima, her 18-month-old son, in the town of Fontenay-sous-Bois in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

Ibrahima was missing, and for only the ninth time since it was introduced in 2006, an alerte enlèvement (the equivalent of an Amber alert) was launched nationwide to find him.



Police suspected that he had been taken by his father and Pozgaj's former partner, Doucoure.

The public was warned not to intervene but to report any sightings or pass on any information they had as to the whereabouts of the 28-year-old Doucoure, as he was considered dangerous and possibly armed.

Ibrahima was found safe and sound late on Tuesday evening, Doucoure taken into custody where he later admitted to having killed Pozgaj, and the alert lifted.

So a successful conclusion to the alerte enlèvement, but of course not really as far as Pozgaj's family was concerned, who insisted that her death could have been prevented - if only the authorities had listened and acted.

"My sister filed numerous complaints, and it was only after the 20th or 30th time that they took her seriously," her brother, Sacha said on Thursday.

"With everything they knew, why didn't they protect her?"

Last October Pozgaj went to see Jean-François Voguet, the mayor of Fontenay-sous-Bois.

The 26-year-old was armed with documents and testimonies of complaints she had already made to the police "proving" that she had been repeatedly threatened by her former partner.

What she wanted was to be "rehoused in another town" within the same (administrative) département of Val-de Marne in which Fontenay-sous-Bois is located

Voguet reportedly took her case seriously and a month later wrote a letter a month later to the Prefecture of the département urging that Pozgaj's request be dealt with immediately for both her sake and that of her son, and attaching all the legal documents.

He never received a reply.

It's surely hard to argue against members of Pozgaj's family or their lawyers when they accuse the judicial system of having failed in its duty to protect the 26-year-old.

Just last week Pozgaj returned to see Voguet to repeat her request to be rehoused.

Even though Doucoure had recently received a four-month suspended sentence and a court order preventing him from seeing or approaching Pozgaj, and in fact wasn't even supposed to enter the same département, he was still sending her threatening text messages.

"For six months Tania systematically went to the police to report the threats she was receiving," Yasmina Mechoucha Robin, a lawyer for the family said.

"The most recent one quite simply said 'I am going to kill you'.

Police step up investigations in Sarkozy death threat case

There has been a development in the case of "le corbeau" (the crow) - or perhaps that should be put in the plural.

On Thursday, police swooped on around 20 homes in the southern French département of l'Hérault and took 11 people in for questioning

You might remember that the affair of le corbeau dates back to the end of 2008 when a number of leading politicians, including the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and several government ministers (past and present), as well as high profile media figures started receiving threatening letters, some of them accompanied by a bullet.

All the letters reportedly carried a postmark indicating they had been sent from l'Hérault.

At the beginning of this year there were two waves of letters, each one warning the recipients that their lives and those of their families were at risk.

While the media speculated as to whether the (anonymous) letters were the work of a group or a cell, the nterior minister at the time, Michèle Alliot-Marie, also suggested that it could be the ramblings of an unbalanced individual or "someone who was a little deranged".

The most recently reported case (you can read about it here) was just last month, when a letter addressed to Sarkozy was intercepted at the central sorting office in the southern city of Montpellier.

Thursday's operation took place early in the morning in the town of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières as well as the neighbouring villages of Prémian and Riols (you'll need to get your maps out to locate them precisely).

Those questioned and detained were a mixed bunch, according to the regional daily Midi Libre, from all walks of life.

But some of them, says the paper, had a number of points in common such as their opposition to a local (Socialist) politician, were members of a local gun shooting club or were hunters.

This time around the police are being, as the national daily Le Figaro puts it, "prudent" in their investigations and remaining tight-lipped.

That might well have something to do with the last occasion on which someone was taken in for questioning back in March this year, when a military reservist from Montpellier was taken in held after being "denounced" by his former girlfriend, but later released without being charged.

Hortefeux to take legal action over two Citroën C6 car claim

Yes it's still summer and government ministers here in France are due back at work this week, but that hasn't stopped silly stories making the headlines.

This time around it's the ongoing saga of the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, and the report by the weekly car magazine, Auto Plus, back in July that when he first took over his new job the month before, one of Hortefeux's first acts was to order two spanking brand new luxury Citroën C6 cars.

You might remember the magazine revealing that cost of the two vehicles was a cool €100,000 (read story here) - hardly the best example of political budgeting in a time of financial restraint.

A spokesman for the ministry issued a formal denial, but the author of the report and the magazine's deputy editor-in-chief (one and the same), Pierre-Olivier Savreux, stuck to his guns issuing a challenge which to all intents and purposes amounted to his saying, "Prove that the story isn't true".

Well, if the reports carried in the French media this week turn out to be true, then Savreux could in a roundabout way have his wish granted.

The national daily Le Figaro is reporting that Hortefeux is prepared to go to court to defend his name. That's right, the interior minister is apparently preparing legal action declaring that the magazine's report "propagated false information".

Now Hortefeux might well be best buddies and a longtime political ally of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but does he really need to emulate his boss by resorting to the courts?

Apparently so although it's unlikely that he'll get anywhere near approaching the lengths to which Sarkozy has taken since coming to office.

You might remember that Sarkozy spent quite a chunk of time in court during his first 18 months of office.

All right maybe he didn't actually pitch up himself, he had a lawyer to do that, but all the same he managed to resort to French justice to pursue civil suits more than any other president in the history of this country's Fifth Republic - six in total.

The infamous case of the voodoo doll seemed never-ending while others, for example the alleged text messages to his former wife, were dropped before they reached the courts.

Maybe Hortefeux, who'll surely have better things to do with his time in the upcoming months, has nonetheless decided to take a leaf out of the president's book.

Or perhaps he'll let the matter drop once the only new car ordered (by his predecessor in the job, Michèle Alliot-Marie, according to a ministry spokesman back in July) makes its apparition at the end of the year as scheduled and the other one fails to materialise.

Presumably that'll all the "proof" necessary for Auto Plus to retract its original story and print an apology.

Watch this space.

Economic crisis? What crisis?

It's good to see politicians setting a good example to the rest of us, especially at a time when most countries are grappling with the economic downturn and in France, as elsewhere, the short term forecast at least is far from rosy.

As you might have read there was a government reshuffle here a couple of weeks ago, a chance for the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to get rid of some ministers who hadn't been performing up to his standards, bring in some new faces and above all reward those close to him.

Among them of course was Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy's long-time buddy and political ally who, back in June 2007 had been given the newly-created immigration portfolio, switched to employment five months ago and finally got his hands on the office (apart perhaps from that of prime minister) which he had been widely believed to have coveted when he replaced Michèle Alliot-Marie as minister of the interior.

With the change of ministry of course came a change of staff, offices, and cars.

Yes ministers need cars (plural) and chauffeurs to speed them from one appointment to another, departments need pool cars and they (the vehicles) have to be up to the job.

Fair enough, not just a simple perk of the job, but undoubtedly a necessity.

Except in its latest edition, the weekly car magazine Auto Plus, has a few harsh words for the reported decision of the newly-appointed interior minister, to order two new cars unnecessarily.

According to the magazine, Hortefeux, ordered two brand spanking new, top-of-the-range, luxury (enough superlatives?) Citroën C6 cars. Yes "luxury" exists within the French car industry too.

The cost - a cool €100,000.

As is often the case in stories such as these, the version from the ministry tells a different tale with a spokesman, Gérard Gachet, issuing a formal denial saying that Hortefeux hadn't ordered any new vehicle.

Hortefeux hasn't ordered new cars, "He's using the one that was already at the disposal of Michèle Alliot-Marie," he told the Le Parisien.

"The other car is a Citroën C6, ordered before he took over office and part of the regular renewal of vehicles," he continued.

"It'll be delivered at the end of this year and will replace a car that has been in service since 2007."

So a pretty open-and shut case with the denial suggesting that Auto Plus had got its story wrong.

No so, insists the author of the report, the deputy editor-in-chief, Pierre-Olivier Savreux

He's sticking by wrote saying that he has a source from the car manufacturer itself that the order for two (rather than one) cars was placed after Hortefeux took over at the interior ministry.

And Savreux even challenges the ministry to prove otherwise.

"If the ministry actually wants to send us a copy of the order (showing its version as to when it was placed) then I'll be prepared to make a correction in the next issue," he told the website Rue89.

So Auto Plus stands by its story while Hortefeux's ministry maintains its position.

Perhaps when the court of financial auditors makes public the accounts of the various departments for the year ending 2009, just as it did last week for the Elysée palace during 2008, we'll know which version is true.

But by then of course it'll be too late.

French government - the comings and goings

The dust has settled somewhat on the government reshuffle announced here in France a couple of weeks ago. The new members have started to get on with their jobs as have those somewhat familiar faces that simply changed ministerial portfolios. And some of those "dismissed" have had the chance to react.

Perhaps now though is the time to reflect on whether it was, as some political commentators have suggested, simply a game of musical chairs among the favoured, the entry into government of a selected few, and if the French president's insistence in an interview with the left-of-centre weekly, Nouvel Observateur, that it was proof of his continued policy of "diversity within government", really holds up.

Of course much of the domestic and international media focussed on the new culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of the former Socialist president, François.

Although not exactly an example of a further opening up of the government to reflect all political persuasions, the name in itself resonated and was enough to capture the imagination of several headline writers.

Perhaps though the most newsworthy aspect of his appointment - apart maybe for some the fact that he is openly gay - is that Mitterrand rather forced his new boss to announce the reshuffle a day earlier than scheduled by inadvertently confirming to the French media ahead of time that he had been offered the new job.

He later apologised for his faux pas.

So Mitterrand aside, what of some of the others that left or entered the government and the rejigging of ministries.

Well first up there was the rather unceremonious departure of the former housing minister, Christine Boutin.

Whatever you might think about her very strongly pro-life (anti-abortion) views and somewhat "socially conservative" stance on homosexuality, there was understandable indignation from the now former minister in the way she learned of her dismissal; at the same time as the rest of the country when the official announcement of the "comings and goings" was made live on national television.

Appearing on the early morning show of a national radio station a few days later Boutin was in suitably combative form, saying that she somewhat miffed (to put it mildly at the way in which she had been treated.

"I learned about my dismissal along with everyone else," she said.

"I had expected to remain in government and had a meeting in the afternoon with François Fillon (the prime minister) who told me the job of housing minister 'wasn't certain' but when I said that I would be interested in the prisons portfolio, he said he would talk to the president about it and get back to me," she continued.

"I'm still waiting for that call from the prime minister."

So one more-than-aggrieved woman - and her ministry, for so long one of the declared priorities of the French president, has in a sense also been "demoted", because it's now in the hands of Benoist Apparu, who entered the government as a junior minister.

Another victim of the reshuffle was, as expected, the former culture minister Christine Albanel.

There again the close ally of the former president, Jacques Chirac, (with whom Sarkozy had always had a strained relationship) probably saw the proverbial writing on the wall, as she had been charged with trying to see through Hadopi, a bill to crack down on Internet piracy, which although passed by politicians was eventually thrown out by this country's constitutional court.

It's now back, in a revised form, once again making its way through parliament.

Albanel has remained quiet since leaving her job, although as the weekly magazine, Le Point points out, it probably came as a relief to her as her job had not been an easy one, especially after Sarkozy rather unexpectedly announced in January 2008 that he wanted to see an end to all advertising on public television - a policy which also falls within the remit of the culture minister.

It's clear that women didn't fare that well in the reshuffle. There were seven in frontline jobs before, and just four afterwards.

Alongside Boutin and Albanel, the third woman to leave the government was the former justice minister, Rachida Dati.

Her two years in office are of course well documented, she was seldom out of the headlines. And it was known in advance that she would be leaving the government to take up a seat in the European parliament after the June elections.

But this is where it gets interesting and shows a certain inconsistency in the way Sarkozy treated his ministers before and after the reshuffle.

Dati and the former agriculture minister Michel Barnier were both obliged to step down after those June elections.

Sarkozy had made it a rule, if you like - a minister couldn't be in two places at the same time.

Plus he argued that it was a signal that the "best" were being sent to Brussels and Strasbourg, and was proof that France took its role within the EU seriously.

But somehow that seemed to be "forgotten" in the reshuffle as the case of Brice Hortefeux, a long-time friend and close ally of the French president, illustrates. He rather unexpectedly found himself elected to serve for the next five years in Brussels and Strasbourg, but will not take up his seat.

Instead, he has become the new interior minister - a job he has long wanted - replacing Michèle Alliot-Marie, who takes over Dati's old job at the justice ministry (stop the music and find your seats).

And if that were not enough, a new member of the government, Nora Berra, will also have problems fulfilling her obligations to Europe. She too won election to the European parliament.

Because she has entered the government in the newly-created post of junior minister for the elderly.

But this is where it gets really interesting perhaps, because as Sarkozy himself says, Berra is proof of the very ethnic diversity in government in which he seems so proud.

The 46-year-old is the daughter of an Algerian soldier and (cynics might say) in a sense a less controversial and more suitable "replacement" for the now-departed Dati.

And of course if you're really looking for confirmation that diversity remains high on Sarkozy's list of "must haves" for a French government, you need look no further than the fate of Rama Yade.

Granted, she might no longer be the junior minister for human rights - the post no longer exists even though when Sarkozy came to power he said that respect for human rights had to be a vital part of France’s foreign policy, and created a ministry.

Instead she has been become junior minister for sport, a post from which even Yade might have difficulty making her usual controversial statements.

Of course Fadela Amara is still around as a potent symbol of Sarkozy's desire to break with the politics of the past and demonstrate diversity within government. The Socialist politician of Algerian Kabyle descent has kept her job as junior minister for urban policy and has a reputation for speaking her mind.

So there you have it. One interpretation of some of the changes in the French government, but let's leave the last word to the president.

"France needs a team that's diverse", said Sarkozy in that interview with Nouvel Observateur, and as far as he's concerned that's exactly what the reshuffle demonstrates.

Sarkozy's summertime government spring clean

A Mitterrand enters government as Sarkozy makes a bigger-than-expected reshuffle. But what happened to the women in government and human rights?

All right so a French government reshuffle has been very much on the cards for some time now.

There had to be one, especially as the (now former) justice minister, Rachida Dati, and (ditto) agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, successfully stood for election to the European parliament earlier this month and were thus forced to quite their days jobs.

But the announcement of the new line-up came a day earlier than planned. It had to in a sense because the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, found his hand somewhat forced by the obvious joy of one new member of his team, who clearly couldn't contain his delight and actually told the media of his new job on Tuesday afternoon.

Frédéric Mitterrand enters the government as the culture minister, replacing Christine Albanel.

If the name sounds familiar, it should. He's none other than the nephew of the former Socialist president (1981-95) François. But have no fears, the appointment of the 61-year-old isn't exactly an example of a further opening up of the government as he is far from having the reputation of being a man of the Left.

Instead he comes with a long cultural pedigree, if you will, having been a television presenter, writer and producer, and since June last year he has held the prestigious position of director of Académie de France (French Academy) in the Villa Medici in Rome.

There are eight new appointments to the new government, nine ministers have changed jobs and 17 have stayed put. Of the eight who are leaving, Dati, Barnier, Albanel and Christine Boutin (the former housing minister) held frontline posts.

Among the most notable changes are Michèle Alliot-Marie's (MAM) move from the interior ministry to justice, where she takes over from Dati.

Meanwhile after just five months at the employment ministry, Brice Hortefeux, Sarkozy's long-time buddy and political ally, finally gets his hands on the ministry he has wanted all along as he replaces MAM.

There are more musical chairs, of sorts, as the minister of education, Xavier Darcos, moves to employment, and Luc Chatel, while remaining the spokesman for the government will now take on Darcos's old job.

So although the reshuffle is perhaps bigger than many had expected it still includes many of the same faces.

While much of the media focus here has understandably been on Mitterrand's appointment, little attention has been paid so far to two pledges Sarkozy made when he first came to power; to include more women in the government and to make human rights a linchpin of French foreign policy.

The reshuffle illustrates that neither seems to be among his priorities at the moment.

Take gender parity for example, and just look at the figures, which surely speak volumes. There are now a total of 39 ministers in government - frontline cabinet and junior combined.

Before the reshuffle there were seven women in charge of ministries, now there are just four; at finance, health, justice and higher education.

But that's all right isn't it, because the number of women now holding junior ministerial posts has been bumped up from seven to nine.

Gender parity indeed according to Sarkozy's interpretation presumably!

But just as important is another pledge Sarkozy made back in 2007 to include the respect for human rights as a vital part of France’s foreign policy.

True to his word he created a position in government - appointing Rama Yade as a junior minister reporting immediately to the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner.

So what has happened in the reshuffle? Yade has been moved to the post of junior minister for sport and her old job.....wait for it.....has been done away with. That's right, it no longer exists.

Perhaps Yade should count herself lucky though that she has a job of any sort as she has had more than a few run-ins with her big boss over the past couple of years and has frequently been hauled in for private ticking-offs.

She also received a none-too-well-disguised public dressing down from Sarkozy at the beginning of this year after she refused to be pushed to stand for election to the European parliament, which would have seen her forced to leave the government had she been successful.

Still at least her former immediate boss, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, must be a happy man this morning.

In an interview with one of the country's newspapers last December, Kouchner said that it had been a mistake to appoint a junior minister responsible for human rights as "foreign policy cannot be conducted only in terms of how human rights functions".

Sarkozy, it would seem, now agrees.

The composition of the new government (in French)

Sarkozy and the affair of the "transferred" local official

Forget affairs of state, don't dwell on economic issues and ignore the recent results of the European elections, the ever-ready French president, Nicolas Sarkozy also has time to take care of domestic affairs of the household variety - or so it would seem.

And if things don't always go according to (his) plan, then he always has the option of having someone "replaced" "moved" or "fired".

Take the case of Jacques Laisné, the prefect of the department of Var in the south of France.

According to the French online site, Mediapart, Laisné has been fired because he failed to resolve an issue in which Sarkozy had a personal interest - that of the septic tank at the home belonging to a certain Mr and Mrs Bruni-Tedeschi.

If the names sound familiar then perhaps that's because they are in fact the parents of Sarkozy's wife, Carla. In other words the president's in-laws.

They live in Cap Nègre, a rather swanky part of the country on the Med and have for quite a while been embroiled in what is basically a local quarrel over whether to replace the existing system of septic tanks with mains drainage and sewage system.

While the Bruni-Tedeschis are in favour of the changeover most of the rest of the other house owners have steadfastly refused to agree, saying it would be too costly an undertaking.

So into the row stepped the president.

Apparently while Sarkozy was busy in his role as the Big Cheese of the European Union last August, he managed to find time to squeeze this all-important family matter into his busy diary - just before a trip to Russia to sort out that country's dispute with Georgia.

He paid a couple of visits to local meetings on the matter, agreeing that the state would stump up some of the readies and even hauling in Laisné to his in-law's pad to "seal the deal".

All well and good except that in the meantime Laisné apparently has done a volte face.

"He has changed his point of view on the matter to one which is much more in line with our thinking and less under the instructions of Mr Sarkozy," Jacques Huetz, a fellow property owner and one of those in favour of keeping the system of septic tanks, told Mediapart.

And according to the online site it didn't take long for Sarkozy to react. Laisné is no longer the prefect of the department.

But wait. Lest you be thinking that this tale is yet another expression of the French president's displeasure at the refusal of a local official to "toe the line", you would be wrong.

At least, that's according the interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie,

Questioned on the matter on national radio on Monday, Alliot-Marie said that there was a completely reasonable explanation as to why Laisné was no longer prefect.

"Every week there are prefects up and down the country who change jobs and are transferred elsewhere," she said.

"As far as Mr Laisné is concerned he's not a 'career prefect' and in fact comes from the French audit court," she added.

"His transfer is not a sanction of any sort, he'll simply be returning to his area of expertise."

And to the suggestion that Sarkozy had in fact had Laisné fired, she had the briefest of replies.

"Pure fantasy," she said.

So there you have it. Laisné hasn't been sacked, he's just moving somewhere (as yet not revealed) to take up a new post doing more or less what he was doing before becoming prefect.

A completely credible explanation for what has happened surely?

Well it would be, were it not for the sense of déjà vu involved.

It wouldn't be the first time a local official has found himself out of a job at the seemingly at the president's behest.

Rewind to September 2008, when Dominique Rossi, the chief of security on the island of Corsica was fired just two days after the house of the actor Christian Clavier had been peacefully occupied by nationalists.

Clavier just happens to be a close personal friend of the French president.

And in January this year Jean Charbonniaud, the prefect of la Manche, found himself "transferred" elsewhere (read demoted) after just six months in the job following a rather fraught visit to the region by the French president during which protesters didn't exactly make Sarkozy feel at home.

Coup de karcher a Cap Nègre
par rdzg

A clear case of racism within the French police

The following story first began well over a year ago, and although it has only now been partially resolved, it shows perhaps that racial discrimination within the French police is still very much alive and a force with which to be reckoned.

The least that can be said is that this country's highest administrative court and the one that provides the government with legal advice, the Conseil D'Etat, has taken an exceptional step in an effort to stamp out racism.

In 2007 Abdeljalel El Haddioui, an officer in the French police, applied to enter an examination which would allow him to move up a grade.

He was one of 700 original candidates nationally for just 27 posts and after completing six of the seven required stages with an average which put him in the top 20, he was one of 50 remaining candidates to be called before a jury for the final oral phase.

And that's when his problems began and racial discrimination appeared to rear its ugly little head.

The 40-year-old, who had been in the police since 1998, was the only remaining candidate with a name that marked him out as being obviously Moslem.

And here's a taste of just some of the questions he claimed the jury chose to put just to him during that oral session.

"Does your wife wear a headscarf?"
"Do you practise Ramadan?"
"Don't you find it strange that there are Arab ministers in the government?"
"What's your view on corruption within the Moroccan police force?"

As he pointed out afterwards the other candidates were apparently not asked whether they celebrated Christmas.

El Haddioui's score for the oral was just 4/20, which meant that he had failed.

When he made an initial complaint, the president of the jury at the hearing, Jean-Michel Fromion, refused to comment.

But El Haddioui didn't let the matter lie there and instead found himself a lawyer and took his case to the French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission (Halde) saying that, "The jury had based its questions on his ethnic origins and his religion in order to eliminate him as a candidate."

With Halde's backing the case finally reached the Conseil d'Etat, which has now taken the unprecedented measure of recommending that the results for all the candidates be annulled.

The final decision as to the fate of the "class of 2007" and the future of El Haddioui lies with the interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie.

She has yet to make an official statement on the matter.

Death threats and fake bombs

Here in France there has been quite a buzz over the past couple of weeks over two rather similar but unrelated events.

The first concerns the death threats received by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and a number of top ranking political figures.

They were each sent a letter warning them their lives and those of their families were potentially at risk, along with a 38 calibre bullet.

The first letters were sent to Sarkozy and Raymond Couderc, a senator and the mayor of southwestern town of Béziers, at the beginning of February.

And towards the end of February a second wave of letters was sent to, amongst others, the justice minister - Rachida Dati, the interior minister - Michèle Alliot-Marie and the culture minister - Christine Albanel.

The media was rife with speculation as to whether the anonymous letters were the work of a group or "cell" or perhaps the ramblings of one slightly unbalanced individual or as Alliot-Marie said at one point "someone who was a little deranged".

On Wednesday the mystery seemed to have been solved when a 47-year-old military reservist was arrested at his home in Montpellier and taken into police custody.

He had reportedly been "denounced" by his former girlfriend and although he is currently only "helping police with their investigations", if charged and found guilty he could face a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment and a fine of up to €45,000.

While that has been making the headlines, another somewhat similar case also made the news this past week.

Similar in the sense that it seems at face value to be a threat from an anonymous source - this time though aimed at a supermarket chain and the general public.

It involves a man in the town of Vannes in the west of France, who last weekend went along to a local supermarket to do his weekly shop.

Doing as so many of us have been advised to do at a time when belt-tightening and counting the centimes is paramount, he added a family-sized (850 grammes) jar of Nutella - a kind of chocolate spread often eaten on toast at breakfast time - to his trolley and continued with his shopping before heading to the check-out, paying and going home.

A couple of days later, according to a report in Wednesday's edition of the national daily, Le Parisien and reported throughout the media, he opened the jar and discovered not the famous spread he had been looking forward to, but.........in its place something that resembled a bomb.

Not surprisingly he contacted the authorities immediately and a bomb disposals expert was dispatched to his home. Although it turned out to be merely a harmless copy, the regional police have opened an enquiry to discover how a fake bomb came to be inside a jar of Nutella in the first place.

The manufacturer of the product here in France, Ferrero, released a statement to the media on Wednesday in which it said that the first it had heard of the "bomb" was from the reports in the newspapers.

"It's highly unlikely that the production facilities were involved in any way," the statement read, which of course rather leaves everyone wondering how it got there and why?

Strange perhaps, and maybe not to be taken as light-heartedly if, as Le Parisien reports, the accompanying note found with the "bomb" is to be believed.

In a hand- written message the police were warned to treat the affair seriously and do their utmost to find the culprit as soon as possible.

France's new leader - a woman

I know, I know. I sort of made up my mind not to post again until the New Year, but as with all resolutions, it was perhaps meant to be broken.

But the story rather tickled my fancy, and I thought it worth passing on.

Now here's a thing. France has a new leader until the end of the year. A woman!

"What?" I hear you ask.

"Has there been a coup? An election while we weren't looking? A peaceful transition of power?"

"Has the Socialist party finally got its act together and taken over the Elysée palace with Martine Aubry at the helm?"

Well no. None of those.

Here's the explanation.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in Brazil - on holiday until the end of the year with his wife Carla after a couple of days of state and European Union business.

So under normal circumstances, François Fillon, the French prime minister would become this country's "main man" for the duration.

Except guess what, he's on holiday too - in Egypt.

The next in line - politically speaking - would be the number three in the government, Jean-Louis Borloo - the minister of the environment, energy, sustainable development, planning and other bits and pieces.

It's a sort of hotchpotch super-ministry grouping together many deparments under the umbrella of the government's attempt to be as ecologically aware as possible.

Anyway Borloo isn't the man in charge because.....well you probably get the picture by now. He's abroad on holiday too. Destination Morocco.

So that leaves Michèle Alliot-Marie, the interior minister, who is actually remaining in France for the Christmas period (yes some French choose to holiday at home) with her "finger on the button" so to speak, making sure everything ticks over in a hunky-dory fashion.

Alliot-Marie is a safe pair of hands, by most people's reckoning, but there have been a few political eyebrows raised - mainly from the opposition as to how come the top three in government couldn't co-ordinate their diaries a little better to ensure that at least one of them was in the country over the festive season.

Be that as it may, for the moment it's Alliot-Marie who's in charge.

So there you go, a woman in power in France (albeit for just a week) and not an election in sight.

A last minute reprieve for a French tradition

Car licence plates - yes believe it or not they've been making the headlines in France - are something of a national institution here.

And the good news for those who like to see traditions maintained, is that the minister of the interior Michèle Alliot-Marie has backtracked on a decision to get rid of the number signifying from which department or administrative part of France a car comes.

Let me explain.

France is divided into 100 departments - four of them are overseas and the rest of them in what is called Metropolitan France. They're all numbered - more or less alphabetically (if that makes sense) starting with 01 for Ain all the way to 89 for Yonne.

After that it gets a little confusing because Territoire de Belfort is 90 and 91-95 were created in the 1960s when the area around Paris was rejigged.

Anyway for the longest time (well since 1950) car registration plates carried the number of the department in which the owner lived.

Over time it became a badge of pride for many. If you lived in Paris - then your car had 75 at the end of its licence plate. Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) - 06, Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) - 13, Lyon (Rhône) - 69 and so on and so forth. For a full list (should you be interested) click here.

Of course there was also something of a downside as some departments had a "reputation" and being seen with that particular number on your car was viewed by some as a mark of living in the "wrong" area.

On the whole though it was something the French loved. It distinguished them in a very visible way from each other.

Plus it it provided something of a simple pastime for many a bored child (and adult) sat in the back of the car on those seemingly interminable long-distance car journeys across France in the height of the holiday season.

Hours of fun (?) - we're talking pre-Gameboy days here - could be assured by spotting car registration plates and matching them to the correct department.

Just how much the French seemed to treasure the system became clear earlier this year when the government announced that as of January 1, 2009 it would change and any cars registered after that date would no longer carry licence plates identifying the department.

A new jumble of numbers and letters would replace the 59 for Lille (Nord) and 67 for Strasburg (Bas-Rhin) and all the rest.

The current system, the French were told, would reach saturation point within the next five to six years, so a change was necessary.

But the government had clearly underestimated the simple pleasure and apparent symbolism many French attached to the existing system.

Slowly but surely opposition grew. Regional councils said they wouldn't comply with the ruling, A national campaign started, "Jamais sans mon département", to put pressure on government ministers to change their minds.

Finally on Wednesday, Alliot-Marie announced a compromise that should please all sides and avoid a politically embarrassing stand-off.

And here it is. The rather confusing trade-off which will keep the number of the department on the licence plate.

As of January 1 all newly bought (March 1 for second-hand) vehicles will carry a registration composed of two letters - three numbers- two letters, something along the lines of AA-123-AA.

Also on the plate will be the EU flag and the "F" for France, but - and here's the compromise - there'll also be a space for the department number, although it won't actually form part of the car's registration.

The confusing bit? Well now drivers will be able to choose when they register their car, which department number actually appears on the plate.

Up until now, it has always been the department of residence, and every time car owners have moved house from one department to another, they have had to change the vehicle's registration number.

That'll now be a thing of the past and if you wish, you can keep hold of your old number for life (or as long as the car doens't conk out).

Plus of course it means that everyone will be free to "identify" themselves with wherever they wish.

So the opposition is happy, the government avoids a potentially humiliating impasse and children (and adults) can continue number spotting on those long journeys.

There's no date been fixed for a "complete changeover" to the new system, but the ministry of the interior reckons that within five years, 90 per cent of car owners will have the new plates.

Now where do I want to pretend I live?

Regional president shocked by email requesting employees' religion

France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has opened an internal enquiry after one of the country's 26 regional councils received a request from the intelligence service for information on the religion of its employees.

The president of the east-central French regional authority of Rhône-Alpes, Jean-Jack Queyranne, said he had found the request "scandalous."

"Would you be in a position to inform me whether among your personnel you have members of staff whose religion is other than Christian?" was one of the questions received last month by the human resources department of the regional government of Rhône-Alpes.

"If the answer is yes, could you tell me whether some of them have requested special working hours to be able to practise their religion?" was another..

They were in an email, sent by the region's intelligence service, which claimed that it was part of a study being carried out on behalf of the Association des maires de France (French mayors association) an umbrella group which represents the country's almost 36,000 mayors.

It was a claim officially denied by the association.

As soon as he learnt of it, Queyranne, quickly went public and demanded an explanation from Alliot-Marie.

On Thursday he told prime time news on national television that such a request not only ran contrary to the constitution here in France - where there's a strict separation of church and state - but also broke the principles and rules governing those employed in public service.

He said it also gave the impression that the regional government was categorising its employees - civil servants - according to religious beliefs.

"When people come here to work here we simply don't ask them what their beliefs are, or whether they practise this or that religion," he said.

"There has been a huge controversy surrounding the introduction of Edvige (a centralised electronic database to hold details of people considered likely to breach public order) and the government has been forced to backtrack on requesting information on sexual orientation and health," he added.

"And now we're being asked to provide information on the faith of our employees. It's scandalous."

In an attempt to calm fears that the email had been an attempt by the state to try to gather data regarding its employees' religion, the director of the region's intelligence service, Jacques Signourel, insisted that it had been sent by a person working in his department who had taken it upon himself to make the request.

"It would appear to have been the action of one individual who didn't get the permission of his superiors before sending the email," he said

"Similarly he had no instructions to do what he did," he added.

And Gerard Gachet, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said that the request had been both "unacceptable" and "inappropriate" and that the person who had sent it would now face a disciplinary hearing.

But according to France 2 television, Rhône-Alpes had confirmed that it was not the only regional council to have received such a request for information.

The timing of this latest disclosure could not have been worse for Alliot-Marie, who was forced to revise plans for the introduction of Edvige last month after the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, intervened in the ongoing row.

Thousands of French have signed an online petition to the database, which initially included proposals to centralise information on political, business and religious leaders, government employees and even children as young as 13. Youngsters who perhaps had no criminal record but whose activities and social milieu leaves them "susceptible" to becoming members of gangs.

The Conseil d'État - the country's equivalent of the Supreme Court - is due to rule at the end of December on the legality of Edvige.

Sarkozy's women in government - MAM, a rough ride for even the toughest

Time for another in the occasional series looking at some of the women in the French government who are making their mark on politics here in France.

It's the turn of France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie (or MAM as she is commonly known here) who hasn't had an easy week over her project to introduce "Edvige" - a centralised database to store information on those who might be considered to pose a threat to national security or likely to "breach public order".

She had a very public falling out with one of her cabinet colleagues, the defence minister, Hervé Morin and then her knuckles severely rapped by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The controversy over Edvige has been rumbling on for the best part of the summer. It's basically an electronic centralised database to store information on those who might be considered to pose a threat to national security or likely to "breach public order".

It would also allow records to be kept on those as young as 13 - youngsters who perhaps have no criminal record but whose activities and social milieu leaves them "susceptible" to becoming members of gangs.

Things reached a head last week when Morin publicly challenged MAM's project by saying he shared some of the doubts of opponents to the scheme.

A couple of days later the interior minister was forced to backtrack somewhat - she had to after the groundswell of opposition to the project and Sarkozy's intervention. And now she has agreed that "lifestyle" details (read sexuality) won't be included and there'll be a review of exactly how far records should be kept on children as young as 13.

The furore is far from over - there are nationwide protests still planned against the project, there's an online petition and the country's supreme court is to rule on the legitimacy of Edvige in December.

But MAM, a seasoned politician and a usually calming influence, is likely to weather the storm.

Photograph by Remi Jouan (from Wikipedia)

And it wasn't really too much of a surprise when she was named to the government of Sarokzy's prime minister, François Fillion, last year. The only question on most political commentators' minds was which post she would be offered.

She's by far the most politically experienced of the seven women in senior position in the cabinet, entering politics back in in 1983 as a local councillor and three years later winning a seat in the national assembly - the lower chamber of parliament here in France.

By the end of the 90s MAM had worked her way through the ranks of the centre-right Rassemblement pour la République party, the forerunner of the modern-day Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party, to become the first woman to lead a party.

In 2002 there was another first for MAM, when she was appointed defence minister – a post she held until May last year.

She considered standing as a candidate for the UMP presidential nomination (against Sarkozy), but eventually threw her backing behind the now president in the hope of being suitably rewarded.

And in a sense she was, becoming (once again) the first woman to hold the office of interior minister. But her role and influence was seriously diminished by Sarkozy’s decision to move immigration to another (newly-created) ministry, headed by one of his closest allies and personal friend for more than 30 years, Brice Hortefeux.

So MAM, who under Sarkozy's predeccesor, Jacques Chirac, was in charge of one of Europe’s largest defence budgets and took the occasional trip in a Mirage fighter ‘plane, now finds herself drawing up laws against dangerous dogs and accompanying the president whenever he pitches up in front of the cameras to comfort families whose loved ones have died in fires.

While the Edvige fiasco might just be a hiccough in a what has been a long career, MAM is generally seen as a safe pair of hands and discreetly efficient.

When rioting broke out in the northern Parisien suburb of Villiers-le-Bel last November after two teenagers died when their scooter collided with a police car, it was MAM who took charge.

Her manner of dealing with a situation which threatened to escalate out of control was in marked contrast to her predecessor at the ministry (Sarkozy) in 2005 when there was a similar outbreak of violence in another of the capital's suburbs.

Back then Sarkozy had described young troublemakers as "thugs" and famously promised to "Kärcher" (a well-known brand of high-pressure cleaner) them.

MAM's approach was more measured, visiting and revisiting the scene of the incident, assuring police, fireman and local community leaders and calm was eventually restored.

Perhaps it helped at the time that Sarkozy himself was out of the country, allowing MAM to take the heat.

As for the future. Well of course that's pure speculation.

But the 62-year-old is much respected across the political spectrum, is without doubt a safe pair of hands and has a wealth of experience that Sarkozy would be hard-pressed to find in many other politicians - male let alone female - whenever he decides it's time to reshuffle his cabinet.