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Royal and the Roots | 20 comments (20 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Royal and the Roots (4.00 / 2)
A couple of things I just picked up on TV while cooking:

  • a clip of SR at that meeting saying that there might be money to be made by "finance and the media" if NS won, but there would certainly be money to be lost if the left won. She said that very levelly with a steady glint in her eye. Looked like a genuine declaration of war to me.

  • Sarko has ping-ponged back to the right: support for Mohammed cartoonists, speech where he promises to make life uncomfortable for (Muslims unspecified) those who force their family to abide by religious rules, speech to "rapatriés" (former French inhabitants of North Africa) saying if France had to apologise to anyone over Algeria, it was to them (there he is straight picking a fight with Algeria).

  • Le Pen's response? (Roughly): he's ploughing the field where I shall sow and reap. Dead right.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Feb 8th, 2007 at 02:16:10 PM EST
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Re: Royal and the Roots (4.00 / 2)
Sarko has ping-ponged back to the right: support for Mohammed cartoonists
François Bayrou (center) and François Hollande (left, secretary general of socialist party and SR's companion), most anyone that counts went in support of Le Canard Enchaîné in this cartoons trial.
by balbuz on Thu Feb 8th, 2007 at 03:41:47 PM EST
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I'll second that specific bit (4.00 / 2)
Supporting the Mohamed cartoonist is definitely not a rightwing thing, it is a republicain thing, and a good chunk (thre majority)  of these are on the left.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Feb 8th, 2007 at 04:02:07 PM EST
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Re: Royal and the Roots (4.00 / 2)
Sarko is Interior Minister and ministre des cultes. This casts a quite different light on his open support for Charlie Hebdo (for which he'd hardly otherwise be suspected of sympathy... ;)). He must have known he'd create a fuss, being accused of stepping out of the neutral line his "stewardship" of religious bodies implies. (I flagged this on the Salon the other day, knowing there would be protests, and they quickly followed).

But it also has to be seen in conjunction with his aggressive talk (I heard it on the radio, nothing like the soft talk he's been coming up with since mid-January) about making life in France uncomfortable for religious heads of family (and being rapturously applauded for it), and above all his defence of colonialism. Le Pen wasn't making any mistake about it. This is Sarko back fishing in his lake. Not that Le Pen cares...

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Feb 8th, 2007 at 05:08:14 PM EST
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Re: Royal and the Roots (none / 1)
We all know Sarkozy and his motives, the problem being of course he is at the same time candidate and Minister of the Interior, etc.

But I'm still not sure if you argue that supporting the cartoonists means belonging to the right ?

by balbuz on Fri Feb 9th, 2007 at 03:40:33 AM EST
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Re: Royal and the Roots (none / 1)
Sarko has ping-ponged back to the right: support for Mohammed cartoonists

Interesting piece in Le Monde yesterday about this.

Nicholas Sarkozy's support for the weekly sows confusion in Muslim organizations Le soutien de Nicolas Sarkozy à l'hebdomadaire sème la confusion dans les institutions musulmanes
He [a member of the French Council of the Muslim Faith] looks at the bright side by citing certain results of a poll published February 8 by the weekly Le Pèlerin. According to this survey, three quarters of French people consider it "unacceptable" to publicly mock a religion, or the representatives, believers, or founder of a religion. On the other hand, 48% (as opposed to 45%) find it unacceptable that representatives of a religion should be able to sue those who criticize them in court.Il [un membre du bureau du CFCM] se console en évoquant certains des résultats d'un sondage publié, jeudi 8 février, par l'hebdomadaire Le Pèlerin. Selon cette enquête, trois quarts des Français estiment "inacceptable" de se moquer publiquement d'une religion, des représentants, des croyants ou du fondateur d'une religion. Ils sont en revanche 48 % (contre 45 %) à trouver inacceptable que les représentants des religions aient recours aux tribunaux pour poursuivre ceux qui les critiquent.

Interestingly, 55% of regularly practicing Catholics do think it's okay to sue people for criticizing a religion and/or its represenatives, founders, etc., while only 36% do not think it's okay.

Wonder what the number would be for Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and Moonies.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.

by marco on Thu Feb 8th, 2007 at 10:57:46 PM EST
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Royal and the Roots | 20 comments (20 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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