The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced in a televised announcement on Sunday, February 27, his fourth cabinet reshuffle within a year. He highlighted the need for change in France’s international relations, notably amid the Arab uprisings taking place throughout the Middle East and in Northern Africa, where France has close ties with a number of past colonies, the New York Times reported. The reshuffle came shortly after Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie resigned following weeks of controversy over her ties to Tunisia and conflicts of interest during a vacation spent across the Mediterranean as January’s popular uprising was beginning to brew, according to Global Post. Replacing Alliot-Marie is Alain Juppé, past prime minister and defense minister since the last reshuffle in November. Gérard Longuet, head of Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement party, will take over for Juppé as defense minister, while Claude Guean will take over as interior minister for Brice Hortefeux, who reportedly will assume a role as an adviser for Sarkozy in preparation for the upcoming 2012 presidential elections. Deemed a “shadow president” by the French media, one of Juppé’s most pressing tasks is to redeem France’s international relations after Alliot-Marie’s controversial ties to the Tunisian regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and a similar scandal involving ties to ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak to Prime Minister François Fillon, according to the Financial Times. France has also been criticized for its slow reaction to the movements that have swept across the Arab world but now looks to assume a greater role in providing guidance and humanitarian aid to “liberated” nations, as explored by the BBC.

France joined Britain on Wednesday, March 2, in announcing it would accept thousands of refugees from the Tunisian border of Libya, where more than 100,000 mostly-Egyptian workers are stranded after trying to flee the nation amid conflict between protestors and leader Muammar Gaddafi’s repressive forces, Reuters reported. The UN reported the same day that more than 180,000 refugees had or were attempting to flee Libya, according to the Houston Chronicle. More than 77,000 had crossed the eastern border into Egypt, while comparable numbers had crossed the western border into Tunisia. The UN estimated that more than 30,000 remained in Libya, waiting to cross the border into Tunisia. Alain Juppé, the new French foreign minister, announced on Wednesday, March 2, that France would evacuate 5,000 refugees within the following week. While France has offered to help Tunisia handle the influx in people flowing into the already fragile nation, the Minister for European Affairs Laurent Wauquiez warned of a potential threat of a mass wave of illegal immigration into Europe and France on Wednesday, March 2, according to RFI. Wauquiez joined other European diplomats in promoting an aid package for North Africa to prevent mass immigration, which he said could grow as high as 300,000 from North Africa this year.

Martine Aubry, first secretary of the French Socialist Party, made several appearances throughout the week to outline the socialist platform for the upcoming 2012 presidential elections. Aubry explained that among the Socialist Party’s top priorities are French youth, who face high rates of unemployment; the justice system; and public finance reform, according to le JDD. While speaking before a crowd of Socialist supporters on Wednesday, March 2, Aubry criticized Nicolas Sarkozy, claiming that the president has tried to create fear among the French people by launching further debate over the role of Islam in French society in February, according to Le Parisien.

Prime Minister François Fillon announced on Thursday, March 3, plans to reform tax systems affecting France’s wealthiest. The proposed reforms, established as a main goal for President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2011 agenda and which Fillon said should not be abandoned, would abolish France’s controversial tax shield, which prevents French people from paying more than half their income in taxes, and to reform its counterpart, a wealth tax imposed on all households with assets greater than €790,000, according to the Wall Street Journal. In proposing reforms to the wealth tax, Fillon presented two options to reform that tax, which currently ranges from 0.55 to 1.8 percent on a progressive scale, according to Le Figaro. One option would be to raise the threshold on the wealth tax to €1.3 million in assets, which would remove 300,000 households from the tax obligation, according to La Croix. The other option would be not to tax the entirety of each household’s assets but rather the year-to-year growth in total assets.

A Paris court announced on Wednesday, March 2, that fashion designer John Galliano would stand trial over alleged anti-Semitic remarks that stirred controversy that has cast a shadow over Paris Fashion Week, which got under way on Tuesday, March 1, the Associate Press reported. On Thursday, February 24, Galliano was detained by police after allegedly drunkenly shouting anti-Semitic remarks at a couple in a Paris bar, according to Le Parisien. Galliano was immediately suspended from his role as creative director of Christian Dior, and as another complaint and a video emerged of past anti-Semitic rants by the British stylist, the iconic French designer fired Galliano on Tuesday, March 1. On Wednesday, March 2, Galliano publicly apologized for any harm while denying the claims against him, saying anti-Semitism and racism have no place in society, according to Le Point. Set to face trial between April and June, Galliano faces up to six months in prison and a fine of €22,500 for “public insults based on the origin, religious affiliation, race, or ethnicity.”