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.

Outcry over Belgian banker's golden handshake (with update - see end)

Let me put a couple of questions to you. Am I missing something? And just out of interest, what do you think of this?

Monday into Tuesday there were all night negotiations in Belgium to stop the Belgian-French bank Dexia from going belly up with an injection of cash. You might remember that the day before another Belgian bank, Fortis was partially nationalised.

Anyway back to the bailing out of Dexia. The French government provided around €1 billion and he French state-controlled Caisse des dépôts coughed up another €2 billion with the government of Luxembourg chipping in €375 million.

The Belgian state for its part stumped up €3 billion

The grand total - give or take the odd centime - €6.4 billion.

Well guess what.

From reports in the French and Belgian media on Wednesday, Axel Miller - the chief executive of Dexia and by all accounts one of the guys who should take the blame for the company getting itself into such a mess is in the first place, is to get rather a tidy little golden handshake before moving on to pastures new.

The not insubstantial amount of €3.73 million according to the national French daily Le Figaro.

And it's already creating quite a stir within the French government, with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy reported to be hopping mad about a practice he is eager to see ended, and the spokesman for the government, Luc Chatel, saying what is probably going to be heard from quite a few politicians over the next couple of days.

"I think that at a time when the whole financial system is experiencing the kind of difficulties we all know about - and notably Dexia has faced such problems - this type of practice is particularly shocking in the eyes of the French," he is quoted as saying.


Miller himself confirmed on Tuesday evening on Belgian national television that he was against the idea of golden handshakes (parachutes) when they were unmerited. But in his case it was "different."

"As far as my situation is concerned the practice is not unmerited, as nobody has told me it's unmerited," he said.

Am I missing something?


Update Friday October 3, 2008

After coming under pressure from the French government, which had threatened to withdraw its financing from the bailout, Miller finally announced that he was abandoning his claim to the golden handshake.

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.