NKM contradicts Guéant...and Sarkozy on vote for foreigners and halal in canteens link

Ah it must be wonderful to have your spokesperson seemingly contradict not only what you've said, but also a statement made by one of your closest political allies.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet (screenshot from Canal + interview)

Such was the case on Sunday when Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who's thankfully more commonly known in France by her initials NKM, seemed to distance herself from one of the ideas expressed by interior minister Claude Guéant on the reasons for not extending the right to vote to non-EU residents in France.

Remember what he said? And in particular the sort of "threats" such a move would pose to society.

"We don't want foreigners becoming elected local councillors and then making halal meat obligatory in workplace canteens or public swimming pools being segregated according to sex."

Well, the link Guéant made between the reasons for not extending the right to vote to non-EU residents and faith-based meals in canteens, wasn't one NKM particularly appreciated.

She doesn't approve of either it appears, but also thinks the connection between the two is an "unnecessary" one.

And she said as much during an extended interview with Anne-Sophie Lapix, the presenter of the weekly political magazine Dimanche + last Sunday (of course) on Canal +.

Asked by Lapix whether she had the same fear that extending the vote would also lead to halal food in canteens, NKM took quite a somewhat different approach to that of Guéant - and indeed seemed to criticise him.

"I think there are enough reasons to be against extending the vote to foreigners in terms of it being the right of citizenship, and I think there are enough reasons to be against faith-based meals in canteens," she said.

"It's not necessary to make a link between the two."

(You can hear her say that at around nine minutes into the video)

DIMANCHE+ du 04/03 - Partie 1

Hum.

That's all well and good: NKM not agreeing with Guéant, the man, who until he became interior minister in February 2011 had been a close political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy for nine years.

In other words, Guéant rarely says something without having had it green-lighted by Sarkozy.

But worse, as far as NKM's comment was concerned, Sarkozy had made exactly the same link between the two as Guéant during a lengthy interview in Le Figaro just days before he officially announced he would be running for re-election.

"If non-EU foreigners could vote in France today, just think what would happen at a local level," he said.

"Questions would start being asked about whether halal food be introduced into school cafeterias and public swimming pools being segregated," he continued.

"Is this what we want? My answer is no. Voting must remain linked to citizenship."

You see?

Precisely the same ideas and argumentation linked in a way which NKM said was "unnecessary".

Oh well.

Perhaps NKM hadn't been briefed sufficiently well as at the time she was still the
minister for ecology, sustainable energy, transport and housing, only stepping down once she had been appointed spokesperson for Sarkozy during his presidential campaign.

Is Germany's Angela Merkel leading a "boycott François Hollande" pact?

How could anyone think such a thing?

Of course there's absolutely no substance to the report in the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel that some European leaders have agreed collectively "not to meet the French Socialist party's presidential candidate, François Hollande, when he comes to their respective countries."

François Hollande (screenshot BFM TV news report)

The agreement, according to the magazine, is between Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime minister of Italy and Spain, Mario Monti and Mariano Rajoy.

They've apparently promised to snub Hollande because of "his plans to renegotiate the treaty on tighter budget discipline for the euro zone."

And just for good measure, the United Kingdom's prime minister, David Cameron is also party to the alleged "pact", even though he didn't sign up to the treaty.

But it can't possibly be true because Berlin has denied the suggestion of the existence of an anti-Hollande pact as the German news channel n-tv reports.

A government spokeswoman told the channel that, "It's up to each individual government leader to decide whether to meet Hollande. So far in Germany, there has been no date fixed."

Aha. That's all right then.

Everyone can forget about that appearance Merkel made with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy on French television's prime time news as a sign of solidarity for the work the two had put in to saving Europe.

After all, Sarkozy wasn't officially a candidate at the time - that came a matter of days later - and Merkel seemed happy to throw her weight behind a man who is, after all, more-or-less in the same broad political family.

Nothing untoward or inappropriate there then.

And David Cameron not meeting Hollande when the Socialist party candidate was in London recently to woo the many French voters who live on the other side of the Channel and put the minds of the City at rest - well, once again that was completely understandable.

In theory at least, Cameron is on the same political wavelength as Sarkozy, so it's obvious he would support the current French president in his bid for re-election and to paraphrase, it's "just not cricket" (or goes against protocol) to meet candidates during an election period (although it's quite all right to offer support as he did to Sarkozy in an interview with Le Figaro a couple of weeks ago).

So it's not snubbing Hollande by any means. Merkel and Cameron et al are quite at liberty to decide who they support and meet; there's absolutely no obligation to even to appear diplomatic and objective.

But wait.

Is that a murmur of disagreement and a word or two of caution from someone highly placed within Merkel's own government?

Surely not.

Yes it is.

And it comes from none other than the German foreign minister and the former leader of the Freie Demokratische Partei (the Free Democratic Party, FDP) currently Merkel's coalition partner in government, Guido Westerwelle.

In an interview with the Sunday edition of the German national daily Die Welt, Westerwelle, while not directly addressing the reports of an implied pact, had a few words of advice for his own country's politicans.

"I would advise all German parties to exercise restraint," he said.

"The party-political debate in Germany is not one that should be transferred to France and the government is not part of the French election campaign," he said.

"We've worked very well with the current French government but we also should also make it clear that we would work closely with any government French voters choose."



Hollande boycotté par les principaux dirigeants... par BFMTV

Claude Guéant's unsurprising appeal to far right voters in French presidential election

It can hardly have been anything more than a coincidence of course.

Just a day after the leader of the far right Front National (FN), Marine Le Pen, announced that she only needed 48 more signatures to be guaranteed being able to stand in the first round of the presidential elections, up pipes interior minister Claude Guéant.

Claude Guéant (screenshot from France 3 report)

He can always be relied on to appeal to voters who might be considering switching allegiances from the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, Union for a Popular Movement,UMP) party of Nicolas Sarkozy for Le Pen's FN.

He has done it in the past during interviews in which he has said the French don't feel at home in their own country, or France doesn't need foreign bricklayers and the number of Moslems in this country causes problems.

And on Friday he took up a theme recently introduced by La Pen who claimed there was a cover-up over the quantity of halal meat being distributed in the Paris region without consumers being aware.

Guéant gave the subject his own special but equally xenophobic touch by linking it to one of the policies put forward by the Socialist party's candidate François Hollande - giving foreigners (ie non-EU citizens resident in France) the right to vote.

"Giving foreigners the vote is a way of opening the door to communalism (the idea of there being a stronger loyalty to an ethnic group rather than society as a whole)," he said during a speech in the eastern French city of Nancy.

"We don't want foreigners becoming elected local councillors and then making halal meat obligatory in workplace canteens or public swimming pools being segregated according to sex," he continued.

"Foreigners must accept our rules, it's up to them to adapt. Everyone knows if we have fewer immigrants, things will be better."

Yes, it was a government minister speaking!



Little wonder that in the past Le Pen has, not-so jokingly perhaps, offered him honorary membership of her party.

Guéant was of course laying out a policy direction clearly designed to appeal to Le Pen voters and just as importantly he was preparing the ground for extreme views to become more acceptably mainstream to members of his own party.

Because guess what?

On Saturday during a campaign rally in Bordeaux, some of those very themes were taken up as part of a speech given by Nicolas Sarkozy, especially the fear of the power (non EU) foreigners would wield if given the vote

And his words fairly echoed those of the interior minister.

"It would amount to an attack on the Republic by opening the door to communalism (there's that word again)," he said.

"And it would put mayors under the threat of blackmail of communalism."



Do you think the UMP campaign agenda is being defined by Le Pen?

Just a thought.