THE FRENCH-AMERICAN FOUNDATION WEEKLY BRIEF

France

President Sarkozy held a government meeting on Wednesday, July 28, to discuss problems posed by communities of so-called nomadic “traveling people” and Roma immigrants. Sarkozy had promised to crack down on travelers after riots erupted in a Loire Valley town last week over the death of a young man. After the meeting, Sarkozy announced that 300 illegal traveler camps would be dismantled and their residents deported within the next three months, according to Le Parisien. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux insisted that the decision was not about “stigmatizing a community,” but that “there are unacceptable behaviors in this community.”  Various organizations and political parties of the left have come out against the decision-deeming it a form of ethnic scapegoating-and a Romanian NGO argued it constituted “a violation of human rights.”An estimated 400,000 travelers live in France, according to Time.

Two Saudi clerics declared that Muslim women living in France are exempt from the recent ban on the full face veil, according to Reuters. The clerics said French women are permitted to show their faces “when need and necessity demand it,” but recommended against tourism to “western countries like France… in favor of Muslim countries where veils are allowed.” The clerics are not members of the Saudi kingdom’s Senior Scholars Authority, which has not commented on the law. RTL mused that perhaps Saudi Arabia’s silence over the law, which it could have condemned, was an indication the country wanted to avoid “throwing oil on the fire.”

On Monday, July 26, President Sarkozy confirmed the death of Michel Germaneau, a retired French man held by insurgents in Mali, Le Parisien reported. Germaneau, who was captured in Niger in April, was killed by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in retaliation for a French raid that killed six al-Qaida militants. Sarkozy called Germaneau’s murder a “barbarous act” committed in cold blood, and vowed that it “would not go unpunished.” Le Figaro described Germaneau as a former engineer who spent his retirement as an aid worker, and who “dedicated his life to others.”

Labor Minister Eric Woerth was questioned for nearly eight hours by police on Thursday, July 29, over allegations of his involvement in the ongoing Liliane Bettencourt scandal. Woerth denied all the accusations against him, which included claims that he received 150,000 Euros in illegal contributions to Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign, and that as Budget Minister, he got his wife employment with the company managing Bettencourt’s fortune. On Friday, Woerth quit his post as treasurer of Sarkozy’s UMP party, saying that Sarkozy had counseled him to step down so he could focus on the president’s pension reform project.

Hadopi, France’s recently established agency set up to deal with Internet piracy, is now ready to “begin its action,” according to L’Express. According to Boursier, the final decree necessary for Hadopi’s application was passed on Tuesday, July 27. Hadopi has already received its first complaints of piracy, and will now set in motion a system of gradual response, in which it will begin by warning violators and ultimately suspend Internet privileges for repeat offenders. The agency has up to two months to respond to these first cases, and will begin sending out warning emails by the end of September.

See also:

– The Economist reported that while Nicolas Sarkozy recently declared laissez-faire capitalism “finished,” and nearly half of French people find free-market capitalism “fatally flawed,” French businesses continue to reap the benefits of the capitalist model.