France's lip-synching government ministers

It's the latest video to create a buzz on the Internet here in France; members of the governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement UMP) party lip-synching.

Most of the video was shot at the party's summer conference in Seignosse best remembered perhaps for THAT clip of the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux apparently making a remark which many interpreted as racist.

And it features - if that's the right word - several government ministers - past and present - letting their hair down and singing and dancing in perfect harmony, albeit it in playback.

The teaser came out last week with the official release of the full-length version set for release Friday 11 December.

But of course the French media has got hold its hands on it - so to speak - and the pirated version, complete with a Nicolas Sarkozy impersonator voice-over, is already doing the rounds.

The video is the brainchild of the UMP's youth wing. An attempt surely to appeal to the electorate ahead next year's regional elections in which several of the political "artistes" will be standing such as the minister for higher education and research, Valérie Pécresse, in Ile de France and the minister of employment, Xavier Darcos, in Aquitaine.

Also shaking their stuff and joining in the fun in a splendid show of solidarity in "Tous ceux qui veulent changer le monde" ("Everyone who wants to change the world") are several other frontline government ministers including Christine Lagarde, (finance), Eric Besson (immigration) and Eric Woerth (budget) as well as the junior minister for sports, Rama Yade, and the junior minister for family, Nadine Morano.

Not forgetting of course the former prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, or Rachida Dati, who until June this year was the justice minister and is now a member of the European parliament.

And so the list goes on.

Anyway without further ado, here it is. Sit back, enjoy and...er...sing along?

Le lip dub des jeunes de l'UMP... piraté!
par LePostfr

Have you recovered or are you still singing?

Earlier this year a similar lip-synched video from Daniel Cohn-Bendit's Europe Écologie party ahead of June's European parliamentary elections received more than 90,000 hits.

Election Européenne Lipdub Europe Écologie vote le 7 juin
par EuropeEcologie

While it would without doubt be stretching a point to say that it contributed to the party's success in the election in which it won over 16 per cent of the national vote and gained 14 seats in the European parliament, it certainly didn't do it any harm.

Something perhaps the youth wing of the UMP party is hoping it can repeat in next year's regional elections.

No regional presidency race for Brice Hortefeux

In what was hardly the best-kept political secret of the week, the interior minister, Brice Hortfeux, has confirmed that he will not stand as a candidate for the president of the council of Auvergne in next year's regional elections.

He had been slated to head the country's governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) in the central French region.

But on Friday he said wouldn't after the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had insisted that his long-term friend and close political ally was needed at the interior ministry - a job he took up in the government reshuffle in June.

Hortefeux's decision was to a great extent one forced upon him by Sarkozy, who appears to have decided that government ministers will have to step down if elected as presidents of their regions next year.

It's apparently part of an effort to prevent politicians amassing jobs, a common practice within French politics over the years as they've sought office on a number of levels - local, regional, national and even European - sometimes all at the same time

"The president has entrusted me with some very important responsibilities," Hortefeux said of his decision in a televised interview.

"Ensuring the security of our citizens and preparing how the country will face the threat posed by a flu pandemic require all my attention, and are incompatible with running for office on a regional level," he added.

So Hortefeux is doing "the honourable thing" if you like, in not standing in the elections next March - even if his decision to do so is at the insistence of Sarkozy.

The process of "accumulating terms" (and salaries as well as pension rights of course) was one discouraged under the Socialist government from 1997 to 2002 and successive centre-right governments under the former French president, Jacques Chirac.

But under Sarkozy, there has been no such unwritten rule, and it tends to depend on how politically appropriate it might be - or how much of a fuss the opposition is likely to kick up.

In fact it seems that Sarkozy blows hot and cold on the issue, depending on whether it's political expedient.

In June's European parliamentary elections the message was clear; a position as government minister or a member of the European parliament. Not both at the same time.

It was the reason why two former ministers - for justice, Rachida Dati, and for agriculture, Michel Barnier, had to step down in June after they secured seats in Brussels-Strasbourg.

Sarkozy "blowing hot" for sure and a convenient way of sidelining Dati in particular who had probably become something of a political liability on the domestic front as far as the president was concerned.

But wait, in those very same elections you might remember that Sarkozy faced a dilemma as Hortefeux rather unexpectedly won a seat to the European parliament (for more on that see here).

In the end Hortefeux declined to take up the post, mainly after being persuaded by Sarkozy - and let's not forget, he had just got his hands on the job he really wanted - that of the interior ministry.

While "hot" on the issue in terms of the European and regional elections, Sarkozy was decidedly "lukewarm" approaching "cold" in last year's local elections.

Far from it being a specified requirement of government ministers at the time that they should leave their jobs if elected to local positions, many of those who had never stood for office, such as Dati, were actively encouraged to put their names forward to boost their credibility.

For the moment though, back to next year's regional elections and the decision by Hortefeux that he won't stand.

It seems to assure him of a job in government even if, as rumoured, there's a reshuffle directly after those elections.

But the same cannot be said for some other ministers

Valérie Pécresse, the higher education minister is a candidate to head the list in the Ile de France region. The emplyment minister, Xavier Darcos, is the candidate for Aquitaine as is the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, for Pays de la Loire.

If they're all successful, and should Sarkozy hold true to his word then there could indeed be some very high level changes in government come next March.

French government takes a break

You know summer is well and truly in full swing when the country's politicians pack up their bags and head off on their hols.

This year the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has given government ministers a three-week break.

Set aside the weather, disregard perhaps that it's the silly season for television and in particular for news, with so-called lighter stories dominating the bulletins.

Don't even think about the traffic chaos predicted for this weekend as juilletists (those who traditionally take their break in July) pack their bags and head home to be replaced by aoutiens (August holidaymakers) searching for sun: the two clogging motorway lanes, filling the airports to bursting point and battling for position at the major railway stations in the annual "crossover".

No, the real point of interest is how the country will manage for a couple of weeks as government ministers go on vacation.

Have no fears, this isn't a list of ALL 39 ministers and their chosen destinations. Instead it's a brief and less-than-serious look at where some of them are planning to spend the next few weeks, remembering all the time that a reported 51 per cent of French cannot afford to go away on holiday this year.

First up (of course) is the one person who isn't strictly speaking a minister; Sarkozy.

After his recent "malaise" - or "nerve attack" as it was first reported by some media outlets - he'll probably find it a little easier than might otherwise have been the case to follow doctors' advice and scale down his activities.

He'll be spending a quiet couple of weeks with his wife, Carla, at his parents-in-law's little pad in Cap Nègre in the south of France.

Not among his list of visitors presumably will be Jacques Laisné, the former prefect of the department of Var, where the Bruni-Tedeschi house is located.

Laisné lost his job a couple of months ago in the "septic tank" affair, in which he reportedly reneged on a promise to Sarkozy sort out a dispute over whether to replace the existing system of septic tanks with mains drainage and sewage system.

You can read more about that here.

Perhaps the minister who faces the toughest job come September when there'll be La Rentrée (the time when everyone gets back to work and schools reopen after the summer break) is the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot.

Without specifying exactly where she'll be passing her time, Bachelot has promised to remain "a maximum of one hour" from her ministry, ready to tackle any threat there might be from the expected H1N1 outbreak.

Another couple of government members for whom you could well spare a thought perhaps are the minister of finance, Christine Lagarde, and the minister of employment, Xavier Darcos.

They'll both be reportedly taking along work with them.

Ah such is the life for those in office.

And then there's the minister of industry, Christian Estrosi, who has recently faced a number of ongoing disputes, most notably the threat of of workers at the bankrupt New Fabris car factory in Chatellerault, southwest of Paris, to blow up the factory.

He says he'll only be taking long weekends because anything else would "be unreasonable".

Some though can apparently afford time for a proper holiday, and a couple of them could even bump into each other.

Both Eric Woerth, minister of budget, and the newly-appointed junior minister of housing, Benoist Apparu, will both be spending their time in the same place; Corsica in the Mediterranean.

And if they're very lucky they could enjoy a tête-à-tête-à-tete with the general secretary of their party ( Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, Union for a Popular Movement,UMP), Xavier Bertrand, who is also scheduled to be staying on “L'île de Beauté” or the island of beauty.

Sarkozy, along with many of his ministers look set to be following the French habit of tending not to travel abroad (90 per cent of them holiday in France). But there is an exception.

The prime minister, François Fillon, will once again travel south to Tuscany in Italy.

Oh well, there's always one, isn't there?

Smile - It's just another December day in France

Prising oneself out of bed - even when one has the benefit of the pre-dawn chorus of howling hounds - is no easy matter.

But it's made all the more difficult at the moment by the fact that it's still pitch black at 6;30am outside, and will remain so for the next couple of months.

Anyway the dogs had been fed and potted, yours truly was slouched over the kitchen table, traditional cuppa (with just a nuage of milk) in hand, gawping bleary-eyed at the small screen in the corner.

Yes decadent perhaps but habit-forming, and informative in terms of getting a head start with the day's news (that's my side of the story) watching the excellent Maïtena Biraben present La Matinale on Canal +.

There was an interview with Dominique Paillé, a spokesman for the governing Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party.

The issue at hand - why the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy had backtracked on two reforms apparently so dear to his heart - Sunday shop opening hours and the reform of secondary school education.

Paillé helpfully and spinningly told viewers that there had been no "backtracking" just a consensus of opinion within the (UMP) party that it was better to introduce Sunday opening gradually (10 days a year to be determined by the mayors).

Then he informed us that the delay by the education minister, Xavier Darcos, of reforms to the secondary school system had nothing to do with fears that French youth - rather notorious for revolting - might follow the violent lead of those in Greece.

Instead the government would now have the chance to explain "properly" what was behind the proposed changes to the syllabus and loss of teaching jobs - one year exactly because they now apparently won't come into effect until September 2010

So you see, "no backtracking" by Sarkozy, even if the presenters and most of the front pages of the French newspapers say so.

Then the news headlines. Snow (how unusual for December), the danger of avalanches in the French Alps and 90,000 households still without power.

By all accounts the French utility, EDF, was working overtime to restore electricity - well let's hope they're all being paid healthy bonuses - remember Sarkozy's mantra "work more to earn more"?

Another day of delays on the trains as the after-effects of Monday's strikes by some drivers are still felt by those trying to make their way to work. Just another strike as far as most French are probably concerned - c'est la vie.

More on that crazy, single-handed, round the world sailing race, Le Vendée Globe. It seems the competitors are in iceberg waters still, and a Briton, Mike Golding has just taken the lead. Hurrah. Mad!

The sad news that German actor, Horst Tappert, had died at the age of 85.

He was the star of the long-running detective drama "Derrick" which, although it stopped being made around a decade ago, is still watched by over one million people each day here on France 3 and has been sold around the world.

Then that moment at the end of many a news bulletin, when the world seems to stand still and greet you with a massive hug, a great big silly grin and a loud "hello" with the "and finally" story.

So.......and finally. No story, no earth-shattering news, no words. Just a video to brighten up the start of your day as it did mine.

Go on. Sit back, take a break from the rest of the day, and enjoy - pretend it's Sunday morning, evening if it's actually Tuesday.

Go on - smile

France - a "working" week in the life of a country

Hello or "bonjour" from France, the country of liberté, égalité, fraternité - oh yes and of course industrial action.

Within the space of barely a week, pilots, train drivers, teachers and postal workers will all have been protesting, and what might from the outside appear almost a national pastime is from the inside just a way of life.

If somehow you managed to make it to France by 'plane last weekend, in spite of the Air France-KLM strike over government plans to increase the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65, the chances are that when you landed you would have heard the usual sort of announcement.

You know the kind of thing. Something along the lines of....

"Welcome Ladies and Gentleman, we have landed at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

"The local time is eight o'clock and the outside temperature is nine degrees celsius.

"Please remain seated until the aircraft has reached its final parking position.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the rest of the crew, we would like to thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and hope to have you on board again soon."

Well that's more or less what you would have heard.

Of course what probably wouldn't have been mentioned, but perhaps should have been for anyone wondering what on earth is going on in France at the moment was that little "extra added value" resembling the following.

"As you know, our pilots have been on strike for the past four days, and if you thought that was the end of the story as far as industrial action in France is concerned, think again.

"On Thursday, primary school teachers throughout the country will be on strike over job cuts due next year, and as local authorities cannot guarantee the government's promised 'minimum service' many parents will have to take the day off work to look after their children.

"Next Saturday - November 22 - it'll be the turn of the post office, or La Poste as we call it here. Employees won't actually be on strike, they had one last month to protest privitisation plans in 2010.

"Instead this time they plan a massive march in the streets of Paris and most of the country's major cities. So in case you're hoping to do some autumn sightseeing of the capital's world famous monuments, or are taking a trip to Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux or practically any other destination in France, you can expect some congestion.

"For those of you who were looking forward to the train drivers' strike on Wednesday, we're sorry to have to tell you that it has been postponed.....for the moment.

"Management and unions are still in negotiations over proposed changes in working conditions for freight train drivers.

"But don't worry, with a little bit of luck, those talks should break down and normal strike service will be resumed from Sunday.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the crew, once again thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and we hope you enjoy your stay in France."

All right, so you'll probably never hear such an announcement, but what's striking about this week in particular in France is exactly that - striking.

Not of course that France is a country unaccustomed to industrial action, and there has been plenty of it, well documented over the years.

Just last autumn the country was brought to a virtual standstill when train drivers came out on strike over government plans to reform pensions, and there have been a series of one-day stoppages over the past 10 months.

Similarly in spring, teachers, students and parents regularly took to the streets to demonstrate against education reforms, and postal workers have also held a number of one day walkouts over the past year.

The French though seem to take it all in their stride.

They grumble about the impact it has on getting to work and everyday life, and then seem to just get on with it.

Perhaps though the most remarkable aspect of this latest round of disputes has been the deafening silence from politicians of all persuasions.

Even though unions reckon that around 70 per cent of primary school teachers will be on strike tomorrow, the education minister, Xavier Darcos, has dismissed the action as an almost "annual autumn ritual."

Meanwhile little has been heard from the opposition Socialist party, which of course is currently embroiled in a battle to choose a new leader.

So to all of you out there, who have made it to the end of this post, here's wishing you "bon travail" as some might say in France.

Teacher left bloodied and bruised as pupil hits out

There has been a heated debate in the media here in France over the past few days over behaviour in the classroom and in particular the problems of discipline following an incident last week in which a teacher was hit by one of her pupils.

But this was not in a secondary school as you might at first imagine, but in a primary school.

The child was just 10 years old, had a history of behavioural problems and was also receiving special supervision.

It happened towards the end of lessons last Friday at the Jean-Jaurès de Persan primary school in a suburb of Paris.

When the teacher reportedly somehow "caught the boys fingers by mistake in a radiator," he suddenly became uncontrollable and in front of the rest of his classmates punched her and then started kicking her.

Some of the other children rushed out to look for help and returned to find the desks upturned and their teacher with a bloody nose.

She was left bruised and in shock, but not in need of hospital treatment, and has taken sick leave for this week.

In the meantime she has filed a complaint with the police, who on Tuesday interviewed the boy in the presence of his parents.

While the education minister, Xavier Darcos, has issued a statement offering his support to the teacher and saying that this sort of thing shouldn't happen, the head teacher said that the school still had a responsibility to teach the boy.

Education minister, Xavier Darcos

(© David Mendiboure - Service photo de Matignon)

He cannot be suspended, excluded or expelled she told the press. Regulations don't allow any of those options. "It's our role as a public service to provide the child with a suitable education," she is quoted as saying.

That's a view backed up by Simone Christin, an inspector for the local education authority who visited the school on Monday to talk to teachers and children alike.

"It was an isolated incident," she said afterwards. "One involving a child who was known to have behavioural problems and has for a period of time been monitored and received special assisted supervision."

In spite of the obligation the school and local education authority might have, it didn't seem of much comfort to mothers and fathers as they gathered in front of the gates on Monday afternoon to collect their children.

Emotions were understandably still running high and there was a banner hanging at the entrance as television cameras were there to capture the reactions of some of the parents.

"My daughter was talking about it throughout the whole of the weekend, said one mother.

"When I collected my son after lessons last Friday he was in tears," said another. "He didn't want to return to school this morning" said another.

The local public prosecutor Marie-Thérèse de Givry insisted that whatever the outcome of police investigations there would be no criminal proceedings brought against the boy as he is younger than 13.

She suggested that he would probably have a psychiatric evaluation to determine what sort of extra needs he might need within the education system.

Since the incident the boy has yet to return to regular lessons. When he does, it will not be with the rest of this class but initially at least on a one-to-one basis.

Not quite a French "Cold Case" - but almost

One of the most watched programmes on French television at the moment is the US import "Cold Case" in which each week Detective Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris) reopens an investigation into a previously unsolved murder.

Perhaps events over the past couple of days here in France could do with a little of that "fictional" help if the truth behind what actually happened in the following tale is ever to surface.

For sure there was no homicide involved, but it resulted in a death nonetheless. And there are questions and issues that remain unanswered and unresolved.

The events concern what did or perhaps did not happen between a teacher and a pupil at the César-Savart secondary school in Saint-Michel near the northern French town of Laon, last week.

The science teacher was taken in for questioning by police after the parents of a 15-year-old boy made an official complaint.

The boy reportedly had told his father that the teacher had asked him to remain in the classroom at the end of the lesson, and reprimanded him for having turned up late. And at some point during the discussion the boy alleged that the 38-year-old man turned around and hit him.

When detained the teacher denied the charges and according to the public prosecutor of Laon, Olivier Hussenet, as far as the police were concerned there didn't appear to have been enough evidence to press charges.

"The alleged incident was in a classroom," he said. "There were no witnesses and it was one person's word against another's."

That might have been the end of the media interest in the case, had the 38-year-old not hanged himself a day later.

He left a letter but one which contained no mention of why he had decided to take his life.

And Hussenet insists there didn't appear to be a direct connection between the alleged charges, the police investigation and the man's suicide.

Instead he offers the possible explanation that it was a combination of personal factors involved.

"His house had been put up for sale and he was going through a divorce," Hussenet told a local newspaper. "The detention and questioning by the police could have been the trigger that led him to take his life."

But for the regional branch of the national teachers' union, Snes-FSU, accusations - whose veracity was unproven - had been made that would inevitably have had an impact on the teacher's reputation.

In an official statement it questioned whether the investigations by the police had been disproportionate to the allegations made.

"It illustrates a deterioration of the situation in which all teachers find themselves on a daily basis," the statement said. "Their numbers are not sufficient and they are sometimes not qualified to deal with the problems they face."

This latest case is not an isolated one of course and highlights problems that have received a fair amount of media coverage in France this year - namely discipline in schools and how or whether teachers should react when provoked. And just as importantly how the police handle claims of force used by teachers against pupils.

In August José Laboureur, a 49-year-old technology teacher from Berlaimont in the north of France, was fined €500 for having slapped an 11-year-old boy.

The incident happened back in January when Laboureur lost his temper after the boy insulted him during a lesson.

There was no disciplinary action taken against the teacher at the time, but the boy's father - a policeman - pressed charges.

The boy was suspended for three days but Laboureur had to wait months for the case to come to court, with parents of children at the school and teachers gathering more than 60,000 signatures in support of the teacher, who many thought had been provoked by a boy looking for confrontation.

The case raised questions as to whether the incident had been taken more seriously by police because the charges had been brought by one of their colleagues.

It also caused the education minister, Xavier Darcos, to step in remarking that the boy had not been suitably punished.

"Without defending the teacher's actions," he said "in a great majority of cases it's often the teachers who are the victims."

"They should not be insulted in public."

Whether the 15-year-old boy in last week's incident was telling the truth may never be known.

He's sticking by his story and his father is backing his version of events.

Interviewed on national radio on Saturday, the boy's father said although he regretted having made the decision to make a complaint, he still felt he was within his rights to have done so.

"He shouldn't have done what he did," he said. "We don't hit children, and that's that," he added.

France - another hateful act

Racism is alive and sick in France - as in probably many other countries in the world - as witnessed in the latest shameful episode, which has brought quick condemnation from the government.

It occurred on Wednesday night at a secondary school in the southern French town of Agde.

Vandals apparently clambered over the gates to gain access to the grounds and proceeded to daub the walls, doors and outside stairwells of the school with anti-semitic and anti-Islamic profanities too obscene to repeat here, as well as Nazi swastikas and slogans.

There was swift reaction from local officials, school authorities, anti-racist groups and the government. And the story was widely reported in the French media.

The minister of education, Xavier Darcos, who visited the school on Thursday condemned the "acts of racist violence, antisemtism and xenophobia" and called for an inquiry to be opened immediately. He also told reporters that it didn't look as though it had been the action of one individual.

The 400 pupils at the school began the new academic year on Wednesday, and according to the deputy head teacher, Anne Bondy, everything seemed normal.

"It's a school without any real problems," she told reporters.

"It opened on Wednesday morning and everything went without a hitch.

"There was no tension of any sort, no indication that would have led us to imagine that such a thing could happen."

On Thursday, the school remained closed, parents were informed of what had happened and children kept away for the day while the clean-up operation went ahead.

While many here in France have reacted with understandable indignation and consider what happened a hateful crime, a quick read through the comments sections of some of the national newspapers' websites - and there has been plenty of reaction - reveals that not everyone shares the same point of view.

Most wholeheartedly endorsed the outrage felt by school officials, local authorities and the sentiments expressed by Darcos. But there were also others who sought to understand what had happened and why - without justifying the act.

And there were also some unkind words about both the level of media coverage and the reaction of the education minister.

One reader (of Le Figaro) suggested that simply painting over the problem and not allowing children to see what had happened - even though they would undoubtedly have been aware of why they were missing a day off school - was "a meaningless attempt at trying to ignore a chapter in French history that had being invoked by the graffiti."

While another (of Libération) criticised the media itself for drawing too much attention to a senseless act that was probably the result of those who knew no better, and newspapers and television would be better off reporting everyday cases of racist aggression in all walks of life rather than "publicising" purely "symbolic acts."

And then of course there were the claims that Darcos - currently under fire from teachers for a slew of reforms to the French education system that have just come into effect at this, the beginning of the academic year - was "benefitting" from the general outrage as a means of deflecting attention from upcoming strikes against 11,000 job losses.

This latest case is far from being an isolated one here in France.

In April racist and sexist abuse was painted on 148 Moslem graves in the country's largest First World War military cemetery at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette à Albain-Saint-Nazaire near Arras in northern France.

The same cemetery was also the scene of a similar racist attack in April 2007, when Nazi slogans and swastikas were painted on some 50 Moslem graves.

Racism, it would appear, is indeed alive and sick in France.