Two a penny

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The domestic row over French President Nicolas Sarkozy alleged remarks about the Spanish prime minister showed no signs of abating, with Socialist politician S&eacutegol&egravene Royal apologizing for her political foe apparent gaff to Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero.

In an interview with the French daily, Le Parisien on Tuesday, Royal confirmed that she apologized to the Spanish leader for Sarkozy failure to control his language and behaviour and said it was an assault not only on foreign figures, but also on the French people.

Today, when one reads the international press, it a shame to be French, Royal also said in an interview with the French TV station France 2 on Monday evening.

Sarkozy offending comments grabbed headlines across the country when the French daily, Liberation reported that Sarkozy criticized his Spanish counterpart at a dinner with lawmakers at the Elysee Palace last week during which he said that Zapatero was not very smart. .

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry has been noticeably silent on the issue, exposing the rifts between the two women since last December acrimonious power struggle for the opposition party top spot.

The political spat over Royal apology to Zapatero has exposed frissons not only between Sarkozy and the candidate he defeated in the 2007 presidential elections, but also within the Socialist Party itself.

This is not the first time Royal has apologized for Sarkozy comments.

From the &lsquoSarkozy school&rsquo

Noting Royal recent fall in the opinion polls, Ga&eumll Siman of the BVA Institute, a French polling group, said Aubry’s silence underlines a bare minimum support by Socialist Party leaders: One gets the impression that the Socialist Party leaders do not see Royal as a rival any more, Siman told the AFP. On a visit to Senegal earlier this year, Royal apologized to Africans for a 2007 speech by Sarkozy suggesting Africa was backward. Her goal could be to place herself as the principal opponent to Sarkozy.

There is little doubt that Royal has a political survival strategy. She has to continue to make her political mark right up to 2011, when the Socialist Party chooses its presidential candidate. She is no more a regional representative who lost the party leadership, Mariette Sineau, research director of the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research, told them. To survive on the political scene for two years is a long haul if you don&rsquot have a strategic political position. To survive on the political scene for two years is a long haul if you don&rsquot have a strategic political position.There is however a difference in scale: he did succeed in taking charge of the UMP. When Sarkozy was a minister under [former French President] Jacques Chirac, he did not hesitate to have a dig at the presidential role. If she does not raise her profile, she will not be noticed, he said.

In politically tricky territory

But is the strategy paying off? Jean-Louis Bianco, a close Royal ally, believes it is working.

In France though, one does not criticize the president of the Republic with impunity. The hysterical reactions from the UMP show that she has put her finger onto something. It can be shocking for some French people for whom the presidential role is sacred, said Sineau. By publicly targeting Sarkozy style on the hallowed ground of international relations, Royal is in tricky territory.

French politics – José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero – Nicolas Sarkozy – Ségolène Royal – Socialist Party – UMP
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Whether this strategy will work, only future opinion polls will show

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AFP – French police detained around 200 undocumented migrants, many of them Afghans, on Tuesday in a major operation in the Channel port of Calais, regional state authorities said.

Thousands of migrants pass through Calais and its squatter camps every year trying to cross the Channel from France illegally to seek new lives in Britain.

Police cordoned off a major camp in Calais itself and seized some 150 people, while picking up a further 33 in motorway rest stops outside the city and 11 in the close toby town of Saint Omer, a state spokeswoman said.

It’s an attempt to dismantle people trafficking networks.

About 300 French officers were involved in Tuesday’s sweep, she said, which came two days before Immigration Minister Eric Besson was due to visit Calais for talks on the situation following complaints from local lawmakers.

&raquo Police arrest 150 migrants in Calais
A volunteer working at a care station for the migrants complained that the area had been under siege for more than a week before the raid. It’s an operation to destabilise the networks and try to find the smugglers, she said, adding that a security cordon had been thrown up around a migrant camp.

We’re trapped.

Many of those arrested identified themselves as Afghans, the official said. Democracy is doing its job, Jean-Claude Lenoir remarked, in a bitter reference to the political pressure brought to bear on the police.

Besson last visited Calais on January 27 and promised that he would come up with a permanent solution to the problems posed by the migrants by May 1. They have been taken into custody in the cities of Calais, Boulogne and Lille on the orders of the Boulogne state prosecutor.

Then interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has since become president, closed the centre following pressure from London, which said it encouraged migrants to make the illegal and dangerous trip across the Channel.

Until November 2002, many of the arrivals from Asia, the Middle East and Africa crossing France en route for what they believe would be an easier life in Britain were housed at an organised camp in Sangatte, close to Calais.

Since then, however, travellers have continued to arrive in the region hoping to sneak on board trucks and trains using the ferries and tunnel to southern England, or to pay traffickers to arrange the crossing.

Since then, however, travellers have continued to arrive in the region hoping to sneak on board trucks and trains using the ferries and tunnel to southern England, or to pay traffickers to arrange the crossing.

France – human trafficking – immigration – police

.Rock star Lenny Kravitz has received fan mail from the “bling bling” president himself – France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, dubbed thus for his fondness for fashion and the high life.
Kravitz, in Paris to promote the 20th anniversary of his debut album Let Love Rule, says Mr Sarkozy had sent him a note which impressed him by singling out specific songs.
“Wow, I was like, ‘You listened to the record!’”
Kravitz kicks off his European tour on April 17 with a concert in Caen, in the north of France. .
But when pressed on how he knew the ex-model and socialite, Kravitz only smiled and repeated: “I know Carla from back in the day.
He added that he and Mr Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were long-time acquaintances.”
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AFP – The French and Chinese presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jintao held talks in London in a bid to end tensions over Tibet, a Chinese official said Thursday.

China was furious at Sarkozy for meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, but the talks late Wednesday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit was intended to end the dispute.

Our meeting today means a new starting point for the bilateral relations, and I hope the two sides work together to usher in a new phase in Chinese-French ties, Hu told Sarkozy, according to China’s state Xinhua news agency.

Recently, China-France relations have had some serious difficulties, which is something we did not want to see, Hu was quoted as saying.

Chinese state television showed images of the encounter with a stern looking Hu talking briskly, while Sarkozy bowed his head and scribbled in his notebook.

Sarkozy’s December 6 encounter with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in Poland on December 6 brought icy diplomatic protests from Beijing. France has reaffirmed that it will support the one China policy and that Tibet is an inseparable part of China. China cancelled a China-European Union summit in December when France held the rotating EU presidency.

Any hint of recognition of an independent Tibet is one of the worst diplomatic offences that can be committed in Chinese eyes and the London meeting had been in doubt for several days.

There were public protests such as cyber-attacks on the French embassy website while French businesses worried about the fallout. . The Chinese foreign ministry at first said Hu had no intention of meeting the French president.

In this spirit and in respect of the principle of non-interference, France denies having any support for Tibetan independence in any form, it added.

France fully understands the importance and sensitivity of the Tibet question and reaffirms its policy of there being only one China and that Tibet is an integral part of of Chinese territory, said the French foreign ministry.

The two sides are willing to strengthen communication and consultation and jointly face the world financial crisis and other global challenges, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The two sides are willing to strengthen communication and consultation and jointly face the world financial crisis and other global challenges, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement. The Dalai Lama says he only wants autonomy for the Himalayan region where there have been deaths in protests in recent months, according to Tibetan sources.

China opposes any government figure meeting the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of being intent on achieving independence for Tibet after 58 years of Chinese rule.

Chinese public opinion was shocked when athletes carrying the Olympic torch through Paris on its way to the Beijing Olympics were harassed by pro-Tibetan protesters.

Franco-Chinese ties were already strained before the December meeting.

China – financial crisis – France – G20 – Hu Jintao – Nicolas Sarkozy – Tibet
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In February, China protested the auction in Paris of two Chinese bronze relics looted during the Second Opium War in 1860

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AFP – France is prepared to walk away from the G20 summit if it fails to secure agreement on issues it wants, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told BBC television in comments released Tuesday.

President Sarkozy was very clear on that front, he said if the deliverables are not there, I won’t sign the communique, Lagarde, who spoke in English, told the BBC. . It means walking away.

On a visit to the central French town of Chatelleraut to promote plans for economic recovery, Sarkozy said there was no choice but for the summit to get results.

Her comments suggest France is trying to raise the stakes ahead of Thursday’s G20 summit on the world economic crisis in a bid to secure agreement on tougher regulation of the financial sector.

Earlier, French officials had said US President Barack Obama had yet to be convinced by calls for international regulation.

The crisis is too serious for us to hold a summit for nothing, he added.

Amid fears the London summit will be split over how to deal with the crisis, French officials have stepped up the pressure, warning Sarkozy would rather air the issues through a public dispute than accept a vague consensus.

While the US favours fiscal stimulus to tackle the effects of the credit crunch, European nations led by France and Germany are sceptical of such an approach, favouring tighter regulation of financial bodies like hedge funds and other measures including a crackdown on tax havens. That’s the real risk, a French presidential source told reporters on Monday.

The risk is not of a failure, but of a false success — a deal on phrases that sound good, but commit us to nothing.

If there’s no progress in London, there’ll be an empty chair.

According to Le Figaro, a right-wing daily with close contacts in Sarkozy’s entourage, the president himself expressed views similar to Lagarde’s comments earlier this month.

financial crisis – G20 – Nicolas Sarkozy
. I’ll get up and leave, Sarkozy said on the sidelines of a March 18 cabinet meeting, the paper’s front page report said Tuesday

.French President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that France will rejoin the integrated command structure of NATO, after an absence of more than 40 years.
France’s president in the 1960s, Charles De Gaulle, pulled out of the command structure, saying it undermined French sovereignty.
But Mr Sarkozy says France can no longer ensure its own security by sticking its head in the sand. .
Foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has also spoken positively about the move.”
– BBC

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“I believe this deeply, and as a result will strengthen the European point of view within the organisation and we will secure essential posts

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AFP – French President Nicolas Sarkozy starts his first official visit to Mexico Sunday, focusing on the global economic crisis and the case of a Frenchwoman jailed on kidnapping charges.

Sarkozy is also expected to sign agreements to build a vaccine plant, install security cameras in the Mexican capital and sell helicopters.

Calderon has said Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could help mitigate the global financial crisis, adding that the broken global and financial system, especially in the US, must be repaired.

Much of the talks with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon will be on the Group of 20 summit of industrial and developing nations in London on April 2.

There is much attention in France on Florence Cassez, a 34-year-old who has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for her role in a kidnapping gang.

The London meeting must make a firm and prompt determination to overcome this challenge because it is difficult to see an end to the financial crisis, Calderon said in an interview with Wednesday.

Cassez’s appeal was thrown out by a Mexican court on Tuesday and Calderon insisted that the evidence presented against the woman was valid. Calderon has not ruled out letting the woman serve her sentence in France. Cassez has already served three years in prison.

Spolice arrested him in December 2005 at the home of her Mexican boyfriend, alleged gangster Israel Vallarta, where police found several kidnap victims being held for ransom, including an eight-year-old child. Bernard Cassez has urged Sarkozy to petition Calderon to grant an amnesty.

Sarkozy met with the Frenchwoman’s father, Bernard Cassez, and her lawyer, Franck Berton, who said the French authorities have assured that they are treating the case with utmost care.

Mexico is France’s fourth-largest partner in the Americas after the United States, Brazil and Canada, with trade worth 2.

On the trade front, Mexico has expressed interest in diversifying its export destinations, because 80 percent of its exported products go to the crisis-battered United States.36 billion dollars) according to 2006 figures. .

Late Sunday, Sarkozy and Calderon will dine with their wives.

Some 300 French firms are established in Mexico employing some 80,000 people.

Ahead of Sarkozy’s arrival, French immigration minister Eric Besson visited a California section of the US-Mexican border to examine the fence and other issues related to immigration in this part of the world.

After meeting with Calderon and signing agreements on Monday, Sarkozy will make a protocol visit to the Mexican Senate, meet with business people and the French community, then dine with Calderon.

Their thesis is that they want to do everything to encourage movement of people into US territory and their return to Mexico, Besson said.

The minister, who toured the San Diego-Tijuana border area, said in California on Saturday that officials on the Mexican side had pleaded for freer movement.

Drug-related violence along the US-Mexican border claimed at least 5,300 lives last year as well-financed cartels orchestrated a campaign of intimidation and kidnappings. That was even more interesting to me because we are trying to promote what could be circulatory immigration in France and in Europe.

Economic crisis – Mexico – Nicolas Sarkozy – prison – talks – trade

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AFP – French police on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of sending death threats to President Nicolas Sarkozy and several politicians in letters stuffed with bullets, officials said.

A 47-year-old computer expert and military reservist was picked up at his home in the southern city of Montpellier, a police official said. The man’s former girlfriend had tipped off police on his whereabouts. We are following this lead as well as others.

We do not have confirmation that he is the one, said a source close to the investigation.

Identical copies of the 20-line typed letter were sent to former prime minister Alain Juppe and several members of Sarkozy’s UMP party, including local elected officials.

Threatening letters with pistol bullets were sent this month to Sarkozy, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Justice Minister Rachida Dati and Culture Minister Christine Albanel.

Another letter was sent to Nonce Paolini, the head of TF1, France’s number one television station, at his offices outside Paris, and the state broadcaster France Televisions also said it had received a copy.

He said investigators suspected they were dealing with an unhinged individual, as opposed to someone with a political agenda.

An official at the Paris prosecutor’s office earlier told that the letters were all posted from the Montpellier region. .

It’s obviously someone who is a bit unstable, Alliot-Marie told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The bullets contained in them were either .

One of the letters, seen by AFP, was riddled with spelling mistakes and contained mostly incoherent and offensive language directed at Sarkozy, his ministers and other right-wing or centrist politicians.38 calibre or nine millimetre.38 calibre or nine millimetre.

death – Nicolas Sarkozy – police

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday the worst of the protests and rioting in the French Caribbean Island Guadeloupe was over, but said much needed to be done to address the discontent roiling the overseas department.

Negotiations are under way.
Negotiations between the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP) and business owners were suspended in Guadeloupe Friday evening after just five hours of discussions. I hope they will be completed and that everyone understands that demands are not satisfied through violence but rather through calm, dialogue and serenity, Sarkozy told reporters on the sidelines of the inauguration of an annual agricultural fair outside Paris.

Discussions are to resume Monday, and continue to be mediated by the state. The sticking point was that of salaries.

Some progress was made right after President Sarkozy declaration, them special correspondent Cyril Vanier reported from Guadeloupe capital Basse-Terre.

&raquo Reporters&#039 notebook: no end in sight for crippling strike
&raquo them Observers on why Guadeloupe is going up in flames
&raquo Face-off: a revolt overseas?
&raquo Protests reach fever pitch in French Caribbean island
&raquo Ask our correspondents
&raquo them Debate: Crisis in the French Caribbean

On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered 580 million euros in subsidies to four French overseas departments, including the restive islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique , in a bid to quell social unrest.

However, the LKP, a coalition of unions and leftist groups, refused to call off their month-long strike , saying Sarkozy plan failed to offer a concrete solution. The Unions met with a French government representative for the first time in ten days since the negotiations first broke down.

The Unions are unhappy with the offers put forward by the French government, said Vanier.

At the moment, the proposals seem particularly vague to us, Elie Domota, leader of Guadeloupe’s striking unions , told reporters after his meeting with the island’s prefect, Nicolas Desforges, and two French government envoys.

Sarkozy set to visit Guadeloupe

Sarkozy proposed a vast plan of modernisation for the territories and promised to visit Guadeloupe to open a round of consultations following talks with envoys from the island on Thursday in Paris. The union categorically said Sarkozy offer does not meet their demands and they&rsquove been offered crumbs, he added.

Sarkozy laid out his offer hours after French Prime Minister Fran&ccedilois Fillon unveiled the government plan to hike wages for low-income earners by almost 200 euros a month, in accordance with union demands.

Guadeloupe LKP launched a strike on January 20 against the soaring cost of living and demanded a monthly wage rise of 200 euros for low-paid workers. While the French government has offered numerous concessions to the protesters, it had so far balked at the demand for a pay hike, fearing it would be forced to offer the same deal to unions across mainland France.

Amid growing criticism over the government failure to address grievances in the French Caribbean isles, the new proposal marked a shift in the government position. We spoke to some residents who said they want time to study Sarkozy proposal, said Herz. .

Located in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe and Martinique are overseas departments of France, meaning they are French territory with the same status as departments on the French mainland (le m&eacutetropole). But, she added, there was a prevailing sense that the French government could have averted a lot of damage by acting sooner. The French government is represented by a prefect, appointed by the French president.Guadeloupe is a group of five islands with a population of 400,000 Martinique a single island also with around 400,000 residents. The islands send representatives to the National Assembly and the Senate in Paris. The islands send representatives to the National Assembly and the Senate in Paris. Unemployment : 22.7% in Guadeloupe (compared with 8.1% in mainland France). Poverty rate: 12.5% in Guadeloupe (6.1% in mainland France) Racial composition: majority black, with significant white and Indian populations. The economy is largely in the hands of the b&eacutek&eacutes, the local name for white descendants of colonial landlords and plantation owners.

The unrest also spread to neighbouring Martinique, where a strike was launched on February 5. Widespread protests on the two French Caribbean islands have led to extreme fuel and food shortages, further inflaming anger among residents.

Strikes turn deadly

The strikes turned deadly this week when Jacques Bino, a union activist, was killed in Guadeloupe main city of Pointe-a-Pitre on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 people — headed by union coalition leader Domota — participated in a silent street march on Wednesday in tribute to Bino, the first fatality of the violence.

Police arrested at least 39 people Thursday, after gangs of youths looted and ransacked stores on the island northern coast.

ByEve IRVINE – Willy BRACCIANO Businesses go up in smoke

Hundreds of French police and paramilitary gendarmes have been deployed in Guadeloupe to quell the violence.

Most shops, cafes, banks, schools and government offices have been shut on the two islands for the past few weeks, dealing a blow to the popular holiday destinations&rsquo vital tourism industry.

The recent tensions in Guadeloupe and Martinique have also exposed race and class divisions on the island, where the local white elite wields power over the black majority.

The four French overseas departments are Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Reunion and French Guiana.

Guadeloupe – Martinique – Nicolas Sarkozy – petrol – strike – unions

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REUTERS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to scrap the position of examining magistrate, one of the great symbolic figures of the French justice system, in a major overhaul after recent abuses, Le Monde said on Tuesday.

The newspaper said all criminal investigations would now be handled by public prosecutors, who answer to the justice ministry, causing concern among magistrates who said this could expose the criminal justice system to political influence.
Sarkozy’s office confirmed that he would make a keynote speech to judges on Wednesday but declined to give details.
The case was widely viewed as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in France since the end of World War Two.

The change would be in line with recommendations made after the 2000 Outreau child abuse scandal, in which more than a dozen people were wrongfully imprisoned after a flawed investigation by a young and inexperienced magistrate. .
The all-powerful independent examining magistrate, in charge of complex criminal cases, is a familiar figure from media and fictional coverage of a series of political corruption scandals but has been used more sparingly in recent years. Under the reform, investigations would be handed over to state prosecutors who already handle most criminal cases in France.

Emmanuelle Perreux, head of the left-leaning magistrates’ organisation SM, also criticised the plan.
This is revenge by politicians against positive actions taken by examining magistrates in the 1980s and 1990s in corruption cases, said Christophe Regnard, president of the main magistrates’ union, the USM. This is a vendetta against economic and financial justice, she said.
It’s the death of an independent justice system because the prosecutors are under government control. The retired Chirac is still facing procedures now.
Examining magistrates were behind a series of sensitive examinations that dogged the late Socialist president, Francois Mitterrand, and his right-wing successor Jacques Chirac for years.

The independent magistrates were also behind a series of criminal cases against major French companies and their senior executives, notably in a huge 1990s scandal centred on the oil company Elf.

The independent magistrates were also behind a series of criminal cases against major French companies and their senior executives, notably in a huge 1990s scandal centred on the oil company Elf.
Le Monde said the changes to be proposed by Sarkozy would include stronger rights for defendants, but they would not make the prosecutors’ office independent of the justice ministry.

The proposals included strengthening defendants’ rights, separating the roles of investigating magistrates and judges, and replacing single magistrates with teams of three.

France – justice – Nicolas Sarkozy