Economist.com: Race and politics in France - Trouble in the court of Sarkozy
Race and politics in France - Trouble in the court of Sarkozy
The first Muslim to hold such a top government job, and a woman to boot, Ms Dati has become emblematic of an effort to open up the French elite. This makes her controversial judicial reform a test of the new France in more ways than one.She was adopted by Mr Sarkozy when he was interior minister (she had written to him cold, and demanded a meeting) and has worked in his team ever since. Since she was appointed rather than elected, Mr Sarkozy's centre-right party is seeking to boost her standing by putting her top of the list for the next municipal elections in the bourgeois 7th arrondissement of Paris. Ms Dati's ascent prompts as much admiration as it does resentment. Her appointment did not prevent another eruption of street violence in the heavily Muslim banlieues last month. In the same week that rioters torched cars, the country's justices also took to the streets during a strike to protest against her plans to amalgamate courts.
Dominique Sopo, head of SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination group, says hostility to her reform is because she is “young, a woman, and of North African origin. Unfortunately, this profile creates resentment among a French elite made up of white men over 55.”
Labels: EU, France, Immigration, Poltical
