French News 23 February
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 8:46AM Strauss-Kahn freed by police in prostitution inquiry
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The inquiry has become known as the "Carlton affair" because of a hotel in LilleFormer IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released after two days of questioning by French police over an alleged prostitution ring.
He is to appear before an investigating magistrate on 28 March who will decide whether to press charges.
Mr Strauss-Kahn had been held at a police station in Lille since Tuesday.
Once a potential candidate for the French presidency, he was questioned about an alleged pimping operation and misuse of company funds.
Eight men have already been arrested as part of the inquiry known as the "Carlton affair" - named after a Lille hotel where clients were said to have been supplied with call-girls.
Investigators had earlier interviewed prostitutes who said they had sex with the former Socialist politician.
Although having sex with a prostitute is not illegal in France, the judge will want to find out whether he was aware the women had been paid for by company expense accounts.
"He is entirely satisfied to have been heard,'' his lawyer Frederique Beaulieu told reporters after he was released.
She said Mr Strauss-Kahn's questioning had answered all questions asked.
"The fact that he is released free is a very good thing," she said.
Mr Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2011 after he was charged in New York with the attempted rape of a hotel maid. The case was later dropped.
Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France in September 2011 although the hotel maid involved in the case is pursuing a civil action.
Court rules Le Pen must reveal backers' names
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French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen lost a legal battle with the Constitutional Court ruling that her backers' names must be made public. Her party had argued that the disclosure would violate her allies' privacy.
French far right leader Marine Le Pen has lost a legal battle in her bid to run for president, with the Constitutional Court ruling that her backers’ names must be made public.
The decision upholds current electoral rules, which say that anyone wishing to run for president must submit signatures of 500 mayors or local officials supporting the candidacy.
The signatures are then made public.
Le Pen, who enjoys strong support in opinion polls, says the signature
rule works against her anti-immigrant party, which has argued that the rule violates the constitution.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the public signatures are constitutional and aimed at increasing political transparency.
The deadline for submitting signatures is March 16 and the first round of elections is April 22.
Bardot backs far-right leader Le Pen's attempt to stand for president
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French former film star Brigitte Bardot has backed far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s efforts to stand for president, a day after France’s Constitutional Council ruled against an appeal by the Front National (FN) chief on pre-poll procedure.
Would-be presidential candidates have to collect the signatures of 500 elected officials, usually mayors, who think they should be allowed to stand.
The deadline is 16 March and Le Pen said Wednesday that she has only been able to collect about 430 signatures.
She has accused the major parties of bullying mayors into not signing her papers and appealed to the Constitutional Council to allow the signatures to be kept secret.
Le Pen slammed the decision Tuesday, declaring that there was “no more democratic practise” in France.
She later told a radio interviewer that she had been forced to cancel campaign events, including a trip to the French West Indies, for lack of finance because banks would not grant her loans until she had the necessary number of signatures.
Bardot entered the fray on Wednesday with a call to mayors to sponsor Le Pen.
The former film star, who is now an animal rights campaigner, said they should do so because Le Pen “defends animals and has the courage to strength to restore our country, France, to the place that ought to occupy in the world”.
Bardot has been found guilty of incitement to racial hatred on five occasions.
Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, who preceded her as the party’s leader and presidential candidate, also complained that he had difficulty collecting signatures. He obtained 533 in 2002 and 507 in 2007.
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Le Pen has refused to debate with hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on a television programme Thursday. She accused the state-owned France 2 channel of “dishonouring the public service” for “wanting to force her” to debate with the Left Front candidate, claiming that he had insulted her in public on several occasions. An FN communiqué claims that Mélenchon has called Le Pen “a bat”, “a barbarian”, “half-demented”, “fascist” and two different French words for stupid. France 2 replied that the choice of participants in a debate are its own editorial choice and that it has never asked politicians if they accept an adversary. Marine Le Pen “wants to be president of the republic but runs away as soon as she faces the slightest contradiction”, the Left Front declared on hearing the news. |
2 Western journalists killed as Syria shells Homs
BEIRUT (AP) — A French photojournalist Remi Ochlik - (right) and a prominent American war correspondent Marie Colvin (left) working for a
British newspaper were killed Wednesday as Syrian forces intensely shelled the opposition stronghold of Homs. President Bashar Assad's regime also escalated attacks on rebel bases elsewhere, with helicopter gunships strafing areas in the northwest, activists said.
"This tragic incident is another example of the shameless brutality of the Assad regime," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the journalists killed.
The Obama administration opened the door slightly Tuesday to international military assistance for Syria's rebels, with officials saying new tactics may have to be explored if Assad continues to defy pressure to halt a brutal crackdown on dissenters that has raged for 11 months and killed thousands.
The White House and State Department said they still hope for a political solution. But faced with the daily onslaught by the Assad regime against Syrian civilians, officials dropped the administration's previous strident opposition to arming anti-regime forces. It remained unclear, though, what, if any, role the U.S. might play in providing such aid.
France was outraged over the journalists killed.
"That's enough now, the regime must go," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
French spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse identified those killed as French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, 28, and American reporter Marie Colvin, who was working for Britain's Sunday Times.
France's Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, said the attacks show the "increasingly intolerable repression" by Syrian forces. French Communication Minister Frederic Mitterrand said of the journalists killed: "It's abominable."
Syrian activists said at least two other Western journalists — French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro and British photographer Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times — were wounded in Wednesday's shelling, which claimed at least 13 lives.
Syria's stalwart ally and major arms supplier, Russia, remained behind Assad, but said the bloodshed adds urgency for a cease-fire to allow talks between his regime and opponents.
An amateur video posted online by activist showed what they claimed were bodies of two people in the middle of a heavily damaged house. It said they were of the journalists. One of the dead was wearing what appeared to be a flak jacket.
Another amateur video shows the two injured journalists in a makeshift clinic, lying on two separate beds. The French journalist, Bouvier had her left leg tied from the thigh down in a cast. A doctor in the video explains that she needs emergency medical care. Conroy appears in the video and the doctors say he has deep gashes in his left leg.
Many foreign journalists have been sneaking into Syria illegally in the past months with the help of smugglers from Lebanon and Turkey. Although the Syrian government has allowed some journalists into the country their movement is tightly controlled by Information Ministry minders.
Colvin, from Oyster Bay, New York, was in her 50s and a veteran foreign correspondent for Britain's Sunday Times for the past two decades. She was instantly recognizable for an eye patch worn after being injured covering conflicts in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Colvin said she would not "hang up my flak jacket" even after the eye injury.
"So, was I stupid? Stupid I would feel writing a column about the dinner party I went to last night," she wrote in the Sunday Times after the attack. "Equally, I'd rather be in that middle ground between a desk job and getting shot, no offense to desk jobs.
In Geneva, the International Red Cross said it was holding talks with members of the opposition Syrian National Council. The ICRC called Tuesday for a daily two-hour halt to fighting in Syria so it can bring emergency aid to affected areas and evacuate the wounded and sick.
Head of ICRI operations for the Middle East, Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the ICRC had almost no contacts with opposition figures inside Syria.
The journalists' deaths came a day after a Syrian sniper shot dead Rami al-Sayyed, a prominent activist in Baba Amr who was famous for posting online videos, Shaker and the Local Coordination Committees activist group said.
On Jan. 11, award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in Homs. The 43-year-old correspondent for France-2 Television was the first Western journalist to die since the uprising began in March. Syrian authorities have said he was killed in a grenade attack carried out by opposition forces — a claim questioned by the French government, human rights groups and the Syrian opposition.
France bids 'adieu' to the term 'mademoiselle'
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French women will no longer have to declare their marital status on official forms after the government demanded the term "mademoiselle" be dropped. Feminist groups have hailed the move as a victory in their battle against a "male-dominated" society.
French language learners might soon have to update their text books after the government signalled the beginning of the end for the term “mademoiselle”.
Under pressure from feminist groups the French government has decided that a women’s marital status should no longer matter when it comes to bureaucracy.
Up until now French women have been asked to identify themselves on administrative forms either as a married “madame”, or a “mademoiselle” - a term used for unmarried young women.
Having to make that choice is deemed sexist by many because men are always referred to as “monsieur”, whether they are married or not.
The Prime Minister’s office has now instructed authorities to only use the term “madame” in a move Solidarity Minister Roselyne Bachelot said would “end a form of discrimination”.
The shift has been hailed as an important victory by France’s feminist movement.
“Little by Little”
Clemence Helfter from Osez le Feminisme told FRANCE 24 the dropping of the term “mademoiselle” is more than just a symbolic victory for gender equality.
“People say to us ‘don’t you have better things to campaign about for women?’ but for us this is a real victory. This word is just a part of an unequal system and each time we gain a victory like this we are beating male domination little by little,” she said.
“Miss” - the English equivalent of the word “mademoiselle” - has been slowly phased out over the years as “Ms” has become the more commonly used term.
The German “Fraulein”, which literally means “little woman” was outlawed from official use back in 1972. In Spanish, a latin language like French, the use of “senorita” is now seen as old-fashioned.
But young women in France are still regularly greeted by the term “mademoiselle” whether it’s by a waiter in a café or when having to identify themselves when shopping online.
“Mademoiselle is not flattering it’s intrusive,” said Ms Helfter. “It’s old-fashioned. Let’s get a move on. Less and less people are getting married in France so what is the point of using it anymore?”
Changing times
Some local authorities have already heeded her call. Last week the council in charge of Paris suburb Fontenay-sous-Bois abolished “mademoiselle” from official documents because it was “condescending and sexist”.
They also banned the term “nom de jeune fille”, which means “maiden name” from all paperwork because it was “archaic” and had “connotations of virginity”.
Officials in Cesson-Sevigne, a town in Brittany, took a similar step two months ago.
Some feminist commentators have put the rejuvenation of France’s feminist movement down to the fallout from the sordid sex scandals involving former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Groups like Osez le Feminisme were angry that comments made by members of the French elite and some media coverage of the case seemed to belittle rape and was too sympathetic towards Strauss-Kahn.
Just weeks after his arrest in New York on accusations he sexually assaulted a hotel chamber maid more than 40 feminist groups held what was considered the biggest conference on women’s rights in a decade. More than 600 activists turned up to the rally in Paris.
“Times are changing in France. While we have often heard it said that feminism was outdated and belonged in the past, we have recently seen a profound resurgence of a yearning for equality,” said Osez le Feminisme leader Caroline De Haas in an article for British daily the Guardian.
The fight goes on
If the feminist movement has been given a much needed boost it still has a big fight on its hands to gain real equality for women in a country where they were not allowed to vote until 1944.
Ms Haas points to the fact that 80 percent of casual workers in France are women and the wage gap stands at 27 percent in favour of men. Only 18.5 percent of members in the lower house of parliament are women compared to 21 percent in the UK, 33 percent in Germany and 46 percent in Sweden.
One of those representatives, Chantal Jouanno, has gone on record saying French politics was so sexist that she didn't dare to wear a skirt in parliament.
In French boardrooms, only 15 percent of executives in large French companies are women. A new law has set a quota for 40 percent by 2017.
The issue is coming to the fore at a key time with France just weeks away from the first round of voting in this year’s tightly fought presidential elections.
Dozens of feminist groups are set to meet the candidates from various parties at a meeting in Paris next month where they will demand more is done to tackle the wage gap and call for restrictions on sexual advertising.
“It’s very important for us to know whether the candidates have it in their minds to tackle these issues of gender inequality,” Marie-Noëlle Bas from the feminist group Les Chiennes de Garde President told FRANCE 24.
Ms Bas told FRANCE 24 that President Nicolas Sarkozy had still not confirmed he would attend the meeting. Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande and the Green Party’s Eva Joly have said they would be there.
Sarkozy risks ‘gay vote’ over same-sex marriage stance
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In May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy promised gay voters the right to marry. Five years later and no closer to the altar, where have his gay supporters gone?
Some 13 years after France adopted the PACS civil union, gay rights campaigners are calling on France’s presidential candidates to grant full marriage and parenting rights to same-sex couples, and polls suggest that it could be a strategic mistake not to hear what they have to say.
Just days after he was elected in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy made a personal address to the French gay community via a recorded video. Speaking of “the difference between lust and love”, he promised to introduce a marriage-type contract which, save for adoption, would give same-sex couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts.
Five years on, the contract has long been forgotten. In an interview with Le Figaro Magazine this month, the president said that he had later “come to realise” that the plan had been an unconstitutional one, and that he was now decidedly against marriage equality. “In these troubled times,” he told the rightwing magazine, “we shouldn’t be clouding the image of such a crucial social institution.”
In response, the gay rights association affiliated to Sarkozy’s UMP party announced that it could no longer support the president in his campaign for re-election this spring. “He’s gone too far this time,” Emmanuel Blanc, leader of the GayLib association, told gay magazine Têtu. “If he was trying to put off gay voters, he couldn’t have done a better job.”
According to the latest polls, Sarkozy has done just that. A survey published by the CEVIPOF political research institute in January puts Sarkozy’s share of the gay vote at a measly 20%, while his Socialist rival François Hollande enjoys 53%.
“We no longer find Sarkozy credible,” explains Anne Boring, a former GayLib member who voted for Sarkozy in 2007. “Over the past five years, Sarkozy’s UMP party has done nothing at all for us. The Socialists on the other hand, have advanced enormously, and are now clearly in favour of marriage equality and granting parental rights to same-sex couples with children.”
‘Rather vote far-right than Sarkozy’
Boring represents a swathe of former UMP supporters who say they feel rejected by the ruling party’s failure to act on marriage inequality. But not all of them have shifted left. According to the CEVIPOF poll, over 17% of gay voters plan to vote for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in April, despite her party’s strict anti-gay marriage stance.
In December last year, Le Pen spoke out in defence of the gay community – something previously unheard of from her traditionally homophobic party. “There are some towns in France where it’s not a good thing to be […] homosexual,” she said in a speech on Islamism. Her ploy was an obvious one, but Boring believes that some gay voters may have fallen for it. “She’s playing on people’s fears of Islam as a menace to gay rights – people who feel threatened may indeed be tempted. These are the kind of people who are not interested in getting married, they’re only concerned about public safety as a homosexual.”
Le Pen has good reason to appeal to the ‘gay vote’. Some 3.2 million of the French electorate, or 6.5%, define themselves as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). They outsize both practicing Muslim voters (at 5%), and practicing Catholics voters (4.5%).
Gay marriage above all else?
Bruno Vercken of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, which actively campaigns against same-sex marriage, argues that many gay voters will dismiss personal interests over economic concerns. “Right now, the real priority in France is not opening marriage and adoption up to homosexuals, it’s restoring confidence in the economy and politics,” he tells FRANCE 24. “I can understand the demand for gay marriage and adoption, even if I strongly disagree with it, but it is simply not the topic of the day, and there are plenty of gay people who recognise that and act on it.”
Benoit, a 32-year-old sales manager from Lille, is not one of them. He voted for Sarkozy in 2007 but will not be doing so this time round. Unable to marry his long-term Colombian partner, the couple separated in 2010 after the latter was forced to leave the country. “The rules are different for heterosexual couples,” he explains. “I still hope to get married and have children in the future. And while I strongly disagree with voting for your personal interests – in 2007 I clearly voted against mine – this is an issue which affects millions of people across the country.” Benoit, like many French voters irrespective of their sexuality, says he is disappointed with Sarkozy in general. “For me, voting for Hollande means an added bonus in terms of marriage equality.”
‘An embarrassment for France’
Boring says that unlike five years ago, the ‘gay vote’ has become one that encompasses not only gay voters themselves, but also concerned heterosexual voters. “LGBT people are making sure today that their friends and family know this is a major issue for them. Besides, so many European countries and other Western states have legalised gay marriage in the past five years, it’s starting to look embarrassing for France. People are questioning why we don’t have equal marriage rights like our neighbours.”
Opinion polls show steady support for same-sex marriage in France, with 64% of people saying they would like to see marriage equality between gay and straight couples, and 57% favouring parenting and adoption rights for same-sex couples. But in June 2011, UMP legislators voted en masse against a bill to legalise gay marriage, successfully blocking it from reaching the Senate or upper house.
If François Hollande wins the election, he has promised to make the issue a priority. “I’m pretty optimistic,” says Boring. “This is a major point in the Socialist party’s campaign platform – saying they’re a party who wants to promote equal rights. I’m confident that Hollande will use this as something which makes him really different from Sarkozy.”
France introduced the 'pacte civil de solidarité' or PACS in 1999, allowing couples (both heterosexual and homosexual) to sign a solidarity contract recognised by the state.
- Inheritance rules found in marriage do not apply, and neither do parenting rights.
- The couple must file joint income tax returns.
- Participants are recognised by the state as “pacsé” rather than single
Acta: EU court to rule on anti-piracy agreement
Protesters assembled across Europe in opposition to the agreementThe European Union's highest court has been asked to rule on the legality of a controversial anti-piracy agreement.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) has been criticised by rights campaigners who argue it could stifle free expression on the internet.
EU trade head Karel De Gucht said the court will be asked to clarify whether the treaty complied with "the EU's fundamental rights and freedoms".
The agreement has so far been signed by 22 EU member states.
The European Commission said it "decided today to ask the European Court of Justice for a legal opinion to clarify that the Acta agreement and its implementation must be fully compatible with freedom of expression and freedom of the internet".
Several key countries, including Germany and Denmark, have backed away from the treaty amid protests in several European cities.
Acta is set to be debated by the European Parliament in June.
While countries can individually ratify the terms of the agreement, EU backing is considered vital if the proposal's aim of implementing consistent standards for copyright enforcement measures is met.
As well as the 22 European backers, which include the UK, the agreement has been signed by the United States, Japan and Canada.
'Misinformation and rumour'Mr De Gucht told a news conference on Wednesday: "Let me be very clear: I share people's concern for these fundamental freedoms... especially over the freedom of the internet.
What is Acta?
- The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is an international treaty aiming to standardise copyright protection measures.
- It seeks to curb trade of counterfeited physical goods, including copyrighted material online.
- Preventative measures include possible imprisonment and fines.
- Critics argue that it will stifle freedom of expression on the internet, and it has been likened to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa).
- Acta has been signed by 22 EU members, including the UK, but is yet to be ratified by the European Parliament.
"This debate must be based upon facts, and not upon the misinformation and rumour that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks."
However, he went on to say that the agreement's purpose was to protect the creative economy.
"[Acta] aims to raise global standards for intellectual property rights," he said, adding that the treaty "will help protect jobs currently lost because counterfeited, pirated goods worth 200bn euros are currently floating around".
Acta's backers face strong opposition within the EU. Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, took to Twitter to outline her worries on the treaty.
"For me, blocking the Internet is never an option," she wrote in a statement.
"We need to find new, more modern and more effective ways in Europe to protect artistic creations that take account of technological developments and the freedoms of the internet."
Germany urged to end sex offender castration
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German law sets out stringent conditions for carrying out surgical castrationEurope's top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has urged Germany to end the practice of surgically castrating sex offenders.
The council's anti-torture committee said such voluntary treatment, albeit rare in Germany, was "degrading".
In Germany no more than five sex offenders a year have been opting for castration, hoping it will lower their sex drives and reduce their jail term.
The committee's recommendations are not binding but have great influence.
The committee's official title is the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).
"Surgical castration is a mutilating, irreversible intervention and cannot be considered as a medical necessity in the context of the treatment of sexual offenders", the CPT report said. It was based on an investigation in Germany carried out in November-December 2010.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the German authorities argue that castration is not a punishment but a treatment which enables, as a government statement put it, "suffering tied to an abnormal sex drive… to be cured, or at least alleviated".
Research for the report revealed that of the 104 people operated on between 1970 and 1980, only 3% reoffended, compared with nearly half of those who refused castration or were denied it by the authorities.
But the CPT objected to the practice, saying:
- The physical effects are irreversible and may have serious physical and mental consequences;
- Surgical castration does not conform to recognised international standards and is not mentioned in guidelines drawn up by the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders (IATSO)
- There is no guarantee of a lasting reduction in the sex offender's testosterone level
- It is "questionable" whether consent to surgical castration "will always be truly free and informed".
In February 2009 the Council of Europe made a similar complaint about the use of surgical castration in the Czech Republic.
Despite the criticism, the Czech Republic still offers prisoners the option of surgical castration.
The CPT says very few European countries still offer the procedure to sex offenders.
In early February, a Paris-based shop selling sex toys was taken to court by two Catholic groups.
Its manager is accused of selling pornography too close to a primary school.
The rift has raised the question of what exactly constitutes pornography and what types of laws should surround it.
French press review
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There's no getting away from the Greeks this morning.
Has the Catholic observation of Lent got something to teach us in the age of austerity?
And did the Socialists hide in the toilets when it came to a vote on austere European legislation?
The standard wisdom, since the legendary siege of Troy, has been "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts". That was because of the wooden horse full of military personnel which the Trojans thought was a present but which turned out to be their downfall. What we need, currently, is advice on what to do with Greeks bearing debts.
The eurozone has decided to give them more money, 237 billion euros to be precise, with a wooden horse full of accountants from Brussels as part of the deal.
Le Monde says the agreement breaks all records but does nothing to relieve doubt about the fundamental solidity of the Greek economy.
The small print explains that Athens used to owe its creditors no less than 160 per cent of its gross domestic product; yesterday's agreement means that the good Greeks will get their debt level down to a mere 121 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade. In non-technical terms, they are still going to drown but the level of the water they're drowning in has been reduced.
French Finance Minister François Baroin was delighted to escape from yesterday's 11-hour negotiation and assured waiting journalists that the compromise reached would ensure a fair sharing of the Greek load between Athens and the other eurozone governments, and between the public and private sectors. In non-technical terms, everyone gets screwed.
Baroin's idea of a fair share might not be to the liking of some in the private banking business. According to today's financial paper, Les Echos, private banks are to write off three-quarters of the money owed to them by Greece.
And Les Echos follows Le Monde in wondering whether the whole ball of wax is going to be enough to get Greece and the euro out of intensive care.
Catholic La Croix headlines its front page editorial "Austerity" but the article is really about Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and penance which starts for Catholics today. La Croix says that the current economic crisis makes the lenten message of sacrifice and restraint even more relevant.
Left-leaning Libération also has the financial crisis on its front page with a main headline reading "The left gets caught in the European trap".
The reference is to yesterday's parliamentary debate on the ratification of something called the European Stability Mechanism, the communal sack of cash which is supposed to ensure that nothing like Greece ever happens again.
There had been widespread calls for left-wing representatives to vote against the proposals, seen by their critics as giving legal sanction to the demands for ever more austerity from those who now run our financial affairs at the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
What did the left do?
The Green Party got lost in the windings of its own rhetoric (I'm quoting, more or less, from Libé's editorial), the Socialists, petrified by the prospect of a presidential battle in two months' time, decided to abstain. And the far left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon spent most of their time criticising their supposed Socialist allies.
Mélenchon had some very harsh words to say. "Every elected representative is obliged to express an opinion. It is just not acceptable to go and hide in the toilets."
Especially since the Socialists could have a majority in the next French parliament and governments are not allowed to hide, anywhere.
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