The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

France became the first nation to recognize Libyan rebels as the official representatives of Libya on Thursday, March 10, shortly after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with two representatives of the Libyan National Council, the rebel group fighting since February to oust Muammar al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya since 1969, the New York Times reported. As European Union foreign ministers and NATO defense ministers gathered separately in Brussels to address the unrest in Libya on Thursday, France encouraged its fellow European nations and allies to give the Libyan National Council the international recognition needed to legitimize the rebel movement, according to the Washington Post. In announcing its recognition of the National Council, the French government declared that it will soon send an ambassador to Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city that has become the hub of the insurgent movement. Earlier in the week, France joined Britain to begin work on a proposed no-fly zone over Libya as the international community stagnates over whether to proceed with a military intervention to calm the violent opposition that has swept Libya, according to the Telegraph. France has also expressed an interest in military intervention, though Foreign Minister Alain Juppé announced on Tuesday, March 8, that NATO, seen as overly aggressive in the Arab world, was not the organization to lead such an operation, according to La Dépêche. Any no-fly zone designation or military operation would then likely be left in the hand of the United Nations, though Security Council members China and Russia have shown a reticence to promote military interventions, as explored by La Croix.

Jacques Chirac, president of France from 1995 to 2007, appeared before a Paris court on Monday, March 7, for the first day of a trial that has culminated from years of investigations into charges of corruption and misappropriation of fund during his time as mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, Rue 89 reported. In the case, which involves nine co-defendants and the creation of 28 fake jobs, the first day of trial led many in France to doubt that the ex-president would ever be held accountable for the corruption allegations. The judge suspended the trial until June, as a cassation court has been assigned to investigate the constitutionality of the charges, according to the Economist. Le JDD explores potential outcomes for the constitutional examination, speculating that the trial could resume in June or that the question could be passed onto France’s highest court, le conseil constitutionnel, which would prolong the process considerably and create new conflicts of interest in a judicial body in which Chirac holds a position.

Two Harris polls released in France this week showed Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front created by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, winning the first round of presidential elections in 2012, though the polls have raised both concerns and questions among fellow politicians and analysts, Marianne 2 reported. The first poll released in Le Parisien on Sunday, March 6, showed Le Pen with 23 percent of votes beating both President Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Martine Aubry, who would both obtain 21 percent of votes. Following the release of the poll, the exclusion of Socialist favorite Dominique Strauss-Kahn and other hopefuls stirred skepticism about the results. Another poll was released on Tuesday, March 8, still showing Marine Le Pen with a first-round win facing other potential Socialist candidates Dominique Strauss-Kahn and François Hollande. The polling methods and media purposes of the controversial poll were shortly brought into question, as explored by the Nouvel Observateur. Since taking the National Front party over from her father in January, Marine Le Pen has slowly worked her way up various polls, according to the Economist.

Chantal Brunel, a National Assembly deputy for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and past spokeswoman for the party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, sparked a debate when she made comments on Tuesday, March 8, that immigrants from across the Mediterranean should be “put back on the boats,” Rue 89 reported. By Wednesday, March 9, politicians from both the left and the right had spoken out against Brunel’s statement. Le JDD explored Brunel’s history of opposing the inclusion of Turkey and other nations in the EU and various stances taken in the name of national security. Head of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, even said on Wednesday, March 9, that Brunel’s comments were flawed, even if only in nuance, and used the occasion to point out similarities between the two parties, according to Le Parisien. On Thursday, March 10, President Sarkozy welcomed newly appointed leaders of the UMP Party to lunch at the Elysée Palace, speaking out against Brunel’s comments, according to Le Figaro. In the same meeting, Sarkozy announced that his party would not align with the National Front and that members who did would face exclusion from the UMP.

The National Assembly officially voted down a proposed law to reject French nationality from immigrants who were convicted of killing police officers on Wednesday, March 9, after a majority of centrists and members of leftist parties announced their intentions to reject the law the day before, le JDD reported. The proposed law came as a part of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ongoing controversial “national debate on immigration.” The law was one of several measures that would take away French nationality from those who had acquired citizenship within the past ten years and were convicted of crimes perceived as undermining the authority of the French state. In a similar measure, the Assembly decided that the 3,000 children of immigrants who automatically acquire French citizenship as young adults each year will be required to file for citizenship, expressing an intention to acquire French nationality, according to AFP. The law extends a stipulation already in place that requires such an expression of desire to possess French nationality by those who have the right to citizenship through France’s “droit du sol” system of establishing nationality through place of birth. Each year, 27,000 adolescent children of immigrants already fill out the necessary paperwork to acquire nationality, while about 3,000 obtain it automatically.

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A New York Times article explores the ongoing debate over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s French History Museum, the Maison de l’Histoire de France. While the controversy has focused on the definition of French history, the determination of whose history qualifies as French, the proposed space has also proven a controversial matter. On Tuesday, March 8, workers at the National Archives in Paris, the house for the presidential project as announced by Sarkozy on September 12, reclaimed the wing in the Marais building for archival purposes after 134 nights of sleep-in protests by union members opposed to the annexation of the space, according to AFP.