Tax the Rich and Save the Poor

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August 7, 2012

Indigestion for ‘les Riches’ in a Plan for Higher Taxes

By LIZ ALDERMAN

PARIS — The call to Vincent Grandil’s Paris law firm began like many others that have rolled in recently. On the line was the well-paid chief executive of one of France’s most profitable companies, and he was feeling nervous.

President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion of anyone’s income above a million euros ($1.24 million) a year. “Should I be preparing to leave the country?” the executive asked Mr. Grandil.

The lawyer’s counsel: Wait and see. For now, at least.

“We’re getting a lot of calls from high earners who are asking whether they should get out of France,” said Mr. Grandil, a partner at Altexis, which specializes in tax matters for corporations and the wealthy. “Even young, dynamic people pulling in 200,000 euros are wondering whether to remain in a country where making money is not considered a good thing.”

A chill is wafting over France’s business class as Mr. Hollande, the country’s first Socialist president since François Mitterrand in the 1980s, presses a manifesto of patriotism to “pay extra tax to get the country back on its feet again.” The 75 percent tax proposal, which Parliament plans to take up in September, is ostensibly aimed at bolstering French finances as Europe’s long-running debt crisis intensifies.

But because there are relatively few people in France whose income would incur such a tax — perhaps no more than 30,000 in a country of 65 million — the gains might contribute but a small fraction of the 33 billion euros in new revenue the government wants to raise next year to help balance the budget.

The French finance ministry did not respond to requests for an estimate of the revenue the tax might raise. Though the amount would be low, some analysts note that a tax hit on the rich would provide political cover for painful cuts Mr. Hollande may need to make next year in social and welfare programs that are likely to be far less popular with the rank and file.

In that regard, the tax could have enormous symbolic value as a blow for egalité, coming from a new president who has proclaimed, “I don’t like the rich.”

“French people have an uncomfortable relationship with money,” Mr. Grandil said. “Here, someone who is a self-made man, creating jobs and ending up as a millionaire, is viewed with suspicion. This is big cultural difference between France and the United States.”

Many companies are studying contingency plans to move high-paid executives outside of France, according to consultants, lawyers, accountants and real estate agents — who are highly protective of their clients and decline to identify them by name. They say some executives and wealthy people have already packed up for destinations like Britain, Belgium, Switzerland and the United States, taking their taxable income with them.

They also know of companies — start-ups and multinationals alike — that are delaying plans to invest in France or to move employees or new hires here.

Whether many wealthy residents will actually leave and companies will change their plans, of course, remains to be seen. Some of the criticism could be political posturing, aimed at trying to dissuade the government from going through with the planned tax increase.

But some wealthy people left after Mr. Mitterrand raised taxes in the 1980s. And more recently, the former Victoria’s Secret model Laetetia Casta, the restaurateur Alain Ducasse and the singer Johnny Hallyday caused a stir by moving to countries just across the border to escape the French treasury’s heavy hand.

There is no question Mr. Hollande is under fiscal pressure. He has pledged to reduce France’s budget deficit, currently 4.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, to 3 percent by next year, to meet euro zone rules.

The matter of how best to hit that target, though, is as much a political question as a fiscal one. Mr. Hollande was elected in May on a wave of resentment against “les riches” — company executives, bankers, sports stars and celebrities whose paychecks tend to be seen as scandalous in a country where the growing divide between rich and poor touches a cultural nerve whose roots predate Robespierre.

Half the nation’s households earn less than 19,000 euros a year; only about 10 percent of households earn more than 60,000 euros annually, according to the French statistics agency, Insee.

There is currently no plan to change the tax rates for most people, which is 14 percent for the poorest and 30 percent for the next rung. For higher earners — people with incomes above 70,830 euros a year — the tax rate will soon rise to 44 percent, up from 41, in a change that was already set before Mr. Hollande’s election.

A tax accountant in Paris with many wealthy clients, Steve Horton, has calculated that a two-parent, two-child household with taxable annual income of a bit more than 2.22 million euros ($2.75 million) now has after-tax take-home pay of about 1.1 million euros ($1.35 million) under France’s current tax system.

That household would end up with 780,000 euros, or $966,000, if the Hollande tax took effect, Mr. Horton says. (The same family, with comparable income in Manhattan, would take home $1.55 million, the dollar equivalent of 1.25 million euros, after paying federal, state and city income taxes, he calculated.)

Taxes are high in France for a reason: they pay for one of Europe’s most generous social welfare systems and a large government. As Mr. Hollande has described it, the tax plan is about “justice,” and “sending out a signal, a message of social cohesion.”

That struck a chord with voters angry about the wealth divide. And it is supported by some economists, including Thomas Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, who has conducted studies indicating that high earners will not work less hard if taxed more. But some say France could send out the wrong signal.

“People have an acceptable amount of taxes they are willing to pay,” said Mr. Horton, the accountant, “and if it goes above that, they will move somewhere that’s more reasonable.”

“The thing French politicians don’t seem to understand or care about is that when you tax away two-thirds of someone’s earnings to appeal to voters, productive people who can enrich businesses and the economy won’t come — or they will just leave,” said Diane Segalen, a corporate headhunter.

She said she had been close to sealing a deal for a seasoned executive in London to join one of France’s biggest companies earlier this year, when Mr. Hollande made his 75 percent vow.

“When the guy heard that, he said, ‘I’m not coming,’ and withdrew from the process,” said Mrs. Segalen, the head of the Segalen et Associés, a consulting firm.

For Mrs. Segalen, the proposal is the latest red flag in a country that has long labored under the image of being a difficult place to do business. France has a 33 percent corporate tax rate — the euro zone’s second-highest, after Malta’s 35 percent. That contrasts with the 12.5 percent rate in Ireland, which has deliberately kept a lid on corporate taxes as a lure to businesses.

“It is a ridiculous proposal, but it’s great for us,” said Jean Dekerchove, the manager of Immobilièr Le Lion, a high-end real estate agency based in Brussels. Calls to his office have picked up in recent months, he said, as wealthy French citizens look to invest or simply move across the border amid worries about the latest tax.

“It’s a huge loss for France because people and businesses come to Belgium and bring their wealth with them,” Mr. Dekerchove said. “But we’re thrilled because they create jobs, they buy houses and spend money — and it’s our economy that profits.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: August 7, 2012

French Refuse to See

In France it is against the law for just anyone to publish a video on youtube of a news event that occured in France. For example, police shooting someone, hitting someone, a riot, burning buildings, protests ... It is illegal to videotape or record it and show it on the internet.

Why?

And by that logic, why is this dead killer not al qaida?

He went to Pakistan (al qaida), visited Afghanistan (al qaida), was trained by al qaida (al qaida), where they told him to kill Westerners (al qaida), trained on weapons (al qaida), given support and encouragement to commit evil acts of terror (al qaida), but he isn't al qaida.

Yep.  Sure doesn't seem like al qaida to me.

Just like in Spain.

Stick your head back in the sand and make something else illegal.

Useless.  You actually ask for this to happen again, and it will, but of course your first ignorant thought will be neo-nazis, as it was this time, instead of what it was - al qaida inspired terror.

French don't see an al-Qaeda link to gunman

Mohamed Merah, killed in a shootout after deadly attacks, claimed he had terrorist ties.

Posted: Sat, Mar. 24, 2012, 3:01 AM

By Jamey Keaten

Associated Press

PARIS - Investigators have found no signs that the suspected gunman behind deadly attacks in southern France was under orders from al-Qaeda or any militant group, a top French official said Friday - disputing Mohamed Merah's claim of terrorist ties before he died in a shootout with commandos.

France's prime minister and other officials have been fending off suggestions that antiterrorism authorities failed adequately to monitor Merah, 23. He had been known to them for years before he carried out three deadly shooting attacks this month.

Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who claimed links to al-Qaeda, was killed in a gunfight with police Thursday after a 32-hour standoff. Prosecutors said he filmed himself carrying out the attacks that began March 11, killing three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three French paratroopers with close-range shots to the head. Another Jewish student and a paratrooper were wounded.

An autopsy of the gunman's body showed that he received two fatal bullet wounds to the left temple and to the abdomen - but that he was hit by about 20 bullets, mainly in the arms and legs, judicial and police officials said.

The head of the elite police unit, Amaury de Hauteclocque, whose mission was to take Merah alive, insisted his men fired only in self-defense.

Investigators looking for possible accomplices homed in on Merah's brother Abdelkader, 29, and the brother's girlfriend, who one official said espouses an ultraconservative form of Islam. Both were detained early Wednesday, along with Merah's mother.

The brother and girlfriend were being transferred Saturday to police antiterrorist headquarters in Paris for further questioning. Abdelkader Merah had been implicated in a 2007 network that sent militant fighters to Iraq but was never charged. Merah's mother was to be released.

Meanwhile, a senior official close to the investigation told the Associated Press that despite Merah's claims to negotiators of al-Qaeda links, there was no sign he had "trained or been in contact with organized groups or jihadists."

The former auto-body worker had traveled twice to Afghanistan in 2010 and to Pakistan in 2011, and said he trained with al-Qaeda in the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan. He had been on a U.S. no-fly list since 2010.

The official said Merah might have made the claim because al-Qaeda is well-known, adding there was "absolutely no evidence allowing us to believe that he was commissioned by al-Qaeda to carry out these attacks."

Merah was questioned by French intelligence officers in November after his second trip to Afghanistan, and he was cooperative and provided a USB key with photos of his trip, the official told the AP.

While he was under surveillance last year, Merah was never seen contacting any radicals and went to nightclubs, not mosques, the official said. People who knew him confirmed that he was at a nightclub in recent weeks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's spy chief said Merah had told negotiators he attacked the Jewish school only after missing his original target, a French soldier.

"It wasn't the school that he wanted to attack," Ange Mancini told France-24 TV, calling the school shooting "opportunistic," because it was nearby.

That account appears to contradict Merah's claim that his attacks were to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and protest the French army's involvement in Afghanistan and a French law banning Islamic face veils.

terrorism

Proud of His Brother? Amazing. Proud of what? Evil.

“I’m proud of Mohamed” boasts Toulouse killer’s brother

24/03 16:14 CET

Euronews.com



The older brother of the Toulouse gunman who killed seven people said he was “proud” of Mohamed Merah’s actions.

Abdelkader Merah told police he was present when the Yahama scooter used in the killings was stolen.

But he insists he had no prior knowledge of his brother’s criminal plans

The 29-year-old and his girlfriend are being questioned by French intelligence officers in Paris.

Mohamed Merah’s mother was also quizzed but has since been released.

Her lawyer said on Saturday that she was “wracked with guilt and full of remorse” for what her 23-year-old son did.

Merah murdered three Jewish children, a Rabbi and three French soldiers in an eight-day killing spree that has shocked France.

He himself was shot dead on Thursday after he opened fire on police following a thirty-two hour siege of his apartment in the southwestern city.

Questions are being asked over how French intelligence failed to apprehend the Merah brothers, who were known to have links to radical Islamists.

It has forced national security straight to the top of the agenda ahead of next month’s presidential election.

islam

Prosecutor: French shooter proud of the 7 slayings

 

By JOHANNA DECORSE, Associated Press

March 21, 2012

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — Riot police surrounded an apartment building into the night on Wednesday, laying siege to a gunman who boasted of bringing France "to its knees" by carrying out an al-Qaida-linked terror spree that killed seven people.
Hundreds of heavily armed police, some in body armor, cordoned off the five-story building in Toulouse where the 24-year-old suspect, Mohamed Merah, had been holed up since the pre-dawn hours.
As midnight approached, three explosions were heard and orange flashes lit up the night sky near the building.
Authorities said the shooter, a French citizen of Algerian descent, had been to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he claimed to have received training from al-Qaida.
They said he told negotiators he killed a rabbi and three young children at a Jewish school on Monday and three French paratroopers last week to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest the French army's involvement in Afghanistan, as well as a government ban last year on face-covering Islamic veils.
"He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference.
The standoff began when a police attempt at around 3 a.m. to detain Merah erupted into a firefight. Three police were wounded, triggering on-and-off negotiations with the suspect that lasted into the night.
As darkness fell, police cut electricity and gas to the building, then quietly closed in to wait out the suspect.
Authorities were "counting on his great fatigue and weakening," said Didier Martinez of the SGP police union, adding the siege could go on for hours. Street lights were also cut, making Merah more visible to officers with night vision goggles in case of an assault.
French authorities — like others in Europe — have long been concerned about "lone-wolf" attacks by young, Internet-savvy militants who self-radicalize online since they are harder to find and track. Still, it was the first time a radical Islamic motive has been ascribed to killings in France in years.
Merah espoused a radical brand of Islam and had been to the Afghanistan-Pakistan region twice and to the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan for training, Molins said.
He said the suspect had plans to kill another soldier, prompting the police raid.
The gunman's brother and mother were detained early in the day. Molins said the 29-year-old brother, Abdelkader, had been implicated in a 2007 network that sent militant fighters to Iraq, but was never charged.
Wednesday's siege was part of France's biggest manhunt since a wave of terrorist attacks in the 1990s by Algerian extremists. The chase began after France's worst-ever school shooting Monday and two previous attacks on paratroopers beginning March 11, killings that have horrified the country and frozen campaigning for the French presidential election next month.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has played up nationalist themes in his bid for a second term, vowed to defend France.
"Terrorism will not be able to fracture our national community," Sarkozy declared Wednesday on national television before heading to funeral services for the two paratroopers killed and another injured Thursday in Montauban, near Toulouse.
The suspect repeatedly promised to turn himself in, then halted negotiations. Cedric Delage, regional secretary for a police union, said police were prepared to storm the building if he did not surrender.
After bouts of deadly terrorist attacks in France in the 1980s and 1990s, France beefed up its legal arsenal — now seen as one of the most effective in Western Europe and a reference for countries including the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Sarkozy's office said President Barack Obama called him Wednesday to express condolences to the families of the victims and praise French police for tracking down the suspect. The statement said France and the United States are "more determined than ever to fight terrorist barbarity together."
In recent years, French counterterrorism officials have focused mainly on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African affiliate of Osama bin Laden's network that has its roots in an insurgent group in Algeria, a former French colony.
Molins said Merah's first trip to Afghanistan ended with him being picked up by Afghan police "who turned him over to the American army who put him on the first plane to France."
"He had foreseen other killings, notably he foresaw another attack this morning, targeting a soldier," Molins said, adding also planned to attack two police officers. "He claims to have always acted alone."
Merah has a long record as a juvenile delinquent with 15 convictions, Molins added.
An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Merah had been under surveillance for years for having "fundamentalist" Islamic views.
During the standoff, police evacuated the five-story building, escorting residents out using the roof and fire truck ladders. The suspect's apartment was on the ground floor of the postwar building, locals said.
French authorities said Merah threw a Colt .45 handgun used in each of the three attacks out a window in exchange for a device to talk to authorities, but had more weapons like an AK-47 assault rifle. Gueant said other weapons had been found in his car.
"The main concern is to arrest him, and to arrest him in conditions by which we can present him to judicial officials," Gueant added, explaining authorities want to "take him alive ... It is imperative for us."
Delage said a key to tracking Merah was the powerful Yamaha motorcycle he reportedly used in all three attacks — a dark gray one that had been stolen March 6. The frame was painted white, the color witnesses saw in the school attack.
According to Delage, one of his brothers went to a motorcycle sales outfit to ask how to modify the GPS tracker, raising suspicions. The vendor then contacted police, Delage said.
The shooter has proved to be a meticulous operator. At the site of the second paratrooper killing, police found the clip for the gun used in all three attacks — but no fingerprints or DNA on it.
Those slain at the Jewish school, all of French-Israeli nationality, were buried in Israel on Wednesday as relatives sobbed inconsolably. The bodies of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 3, and 8-year-old Myriam Monsenego had been flown there earlier in the day.
At the funeral ceremony, Myriam's eldest brother, Avishai, in his 20s, wailed and called to God to give his parents the strength "to endure the worst trial that can be endured."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, meanwhile, denounced the deadly shooting attack at the Jewish school and condemned the link to Palestinian children.
"It's time for criminals to stop using the Palestinian cause to justify their terrorist actions," Fayyad said in a statement. "The children of Palestine want nothing but dignified lives for themselves and for all the children."
Before he was killed last year, bin Laden stressed the importance of focusing on the Palestinian cause. In what is believed to be a draft letter to al-Qaida's top lieutenant, the al-Qaida leader wrote about the need for the terror group's affiliates to tie their operations to broad concern for Palestine instead of local grievances, according to declassified documents obtained in last year's bin Laden raid that were reviewed by the Washington Post.









al qaida

French Citizenship: Learn French, Learn French History, Adopt French Values, or Don't Bother.

It may be too late.



30/12/2011

 

France makes it harder to become French

By FRANCE 24  

Foreigners seeking French nationality face tougher requirements as of January 1, when new rules drawn up by Interior Minister Claude Guéant come into force.

Candidates will be tested on French culture and history, and will have to prove their French language skills are equivalent to those of a 15-year-old mother tongue speaker. They will also be required to sign a new charter establishing their rights and responsibilities.

“Becoming French is not a mere administrative step. It is a decision that requires a lot of thought”, reads the charter, drafted by France’s High Council for Integration (HCI).

In a more obscure passage, the charter suggests that by taking on French citizenship, “applicants will no longer be able to claim allegiance to another country while on French soil”, although dual nationality will still be allowed.

Guéant, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party, described the process as “a solemn occasion between the host nation and the applicant”, adding that migrants should be integrated through language and “an adherence to the principals, values and symbols of our democracy”. He stressed the importance of the secular state and equality between women and men: rhetoric perceived largely as a snipe at Muslim applicants, who make up the majority of the 100,000 new French citizens admitted each year.

France’s interior minister has made it clear that immigrants who refuse to “assimilate” into French society should be denied French citizenship.

Earlier this year, Guéant intervened personally to ensure an Algerian-born man living in France was denied French nationality because of his “degrading attitude” to his French wife.

That followed an earlier push by France’s former Immigration Minister Eric Besson to revise existing laws in order to strip polygamists of their acquired citizenship.

Pandering to the far right?

Guéant has come under criticism numerous times over the past year for allegedly pandering to the whims of far-right voters in his efforts to secure a second term for Sarkozy in 2012. The UMP has edged progressively further right over the course of Sarkozy’s term, even as the far-right National Front party continued to bite into its pool of voters.

Marine Le Pen, the popular leader of the anti-immigration National Front, has been campaigning in favour of a ban on dual citizenship in France, which she blames for encouraging immigration and weakening French values. While several UMP members have endorsed her stance, Guéant has stopped short of calling for a ban on dual nationality, largely because of the legal difficulties such a move would entail.

But the interior minister has taken a hard line on immigration, announcing plans to reduce the number of legal immigrants coming to France annually from 200,000 to 180,000 and calling for those convicted of felony to be expelled from the country.

François Hollande, the Socialist Party’s candidate in forthcoming presidential elections, described Guéant’s stance as “the election strategy of a right wing ready to do anything in order to hold on to power”, adding that his own party would tackle all criminals “irrespective of their nationality”.

Under further proposals put forward by the ruling UMP party, non-French children who would normally be naturalised at the age of 18 (those who are born in the country and have spent most of their childhood there) would instead have to formally apply to the state.

Should Sarkozy and his party secure a second term in 2012, analysts predict a return to an immigration stance that hasn’t been seen in France for almost two decades. They point to a case of déjà vu: in 1993 Charles Pasqua, then France’s interior minister, coined the slogan “zero immigration” and introduced a bill that made it virtually impossible for children born in France to non-French parents to be naturalised.









france

The Funny French

Only in France - where leaders as soon as they leave office face criminal charges for all types of crimes.  Also quite funny that Chirac spoke of the crimes committed by former president -  Valery Giscard d'Estaing, while he is investigated for similar crimes.  It seems the requirement for the French presidency is that you are a criminal.

Funny - the French people elect them knowing all this.




French court allows Chirac being tried in default




English.news.cn
2011-09-06 03:38:01




PARIS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Former French President Jacques Chirac would be tried in default due to his deteriorating health situation, a Paris court ruled on Monday, letting the trial move on with the 78-year-old represented by his lawyers.

"The personal appearance is not ordered," Judge Dominique Pauthe in charge of the case announced as response to the medical report submitted by Chirac's lawyers.

As the first former French president to be tried on corruption allegations, Chirac faces charges of abusing the public funds to pay aides and counsellors who were actually his partisans during his mandate of Paris mayor from 1977 to 1995.

The trial has been delayed several times with judges ruled the trial should be opened in May, but his lawyers have submitted a medical report to the court diagnosing the ex-president with "anosognosia", a brain disorder making people suffering memory loss.

After 12 years as head of state, two terms as prime minister and 18 years as mayor of Paris, Chirac is dogged by a corruption-related allegation dated back to 2007. The trial starting Monday afternoon would last to Sept. 23.

Chirac has said he wanted the trial to proceed to its end and hoped himself to be tried like any other French citizen.

If found guilty, the ex-president faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of 150,000 euros (about 212,000 U.S. dollars) on charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.

The case also involves nine other defendants. The current French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who received a suspended prison sentence in 2004 over the case, agreed to appear as a witness.

French public opinion is divided on Chirac's role in the case, according to local survey. Some said they feel for the old ex-president who is aged and fragile while others said his influence and health state should not spare him from justice in front of which everybody should be treated equal.

















france

What could they be saying/doing?

Reasons to Love France

Not entirely accurate.  Architecture/buildings is a big reasons. 

The image is taken from http://i.imgur.com/B9zAF.jpg

france

French Socialist IMF: Rape and Assault and an attempt to flee

You can't make this stuff up.

Of course there will be people who claim this was all set up by Sarkozy, but sometimes people just stumble into their own mess.


- he has had 3 wives (which in itself means nothing except)
- he admitted to an indiscretion last year (which does not indicate guilt of a crime)
- he has a special relationship with Air France to get on any of their planes at any time in First Class, which he did (odd for a socialist isn't it - to expect such perks from a capitalist enterprise).
- he left without his phone and other personal items





IMF boss Strauss-Kahn pulled off plane, arrested in sodomy probe



By PHILIP MESSING, JAMIE SCHRAM, LARRY CELONA and BILL SANDERSON
May 14, 2011
New York Post




The French political bigshot who heads the International Monetary Fund was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid today — hauled off an Air France flight just moments before takeoff from Kennedy Airport, police said.

Three Port Authority detectives pulled Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the plane’s first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, according to police sources said.

Strauss-Kahn, 62 — who was expected to challenge Nicholas Sarkozy in the 2012 French presidential election — was turned over to NYPD officers and brought to the Special Victims Unit’s uptown squadroom.

The trouble began around noon, when a 32-year-old housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn’s room at the Sofitel on West 44th Street — apparently unaware he was still inside.

The married Strauss-Kahn was in his bathroom, said sources. He emerged naked, grabbed her and "he jumps her," a source said.

Then, Strauss-Kahn allegedly threw the housekeeper on the room’s bed and forced her to perform oral sex on him, said the sources.

The maid managed to break free and ran to a hotel worker to tell what happened, said a source. Soon afterward, Strauss-Kahn got dressed and headed off to Kennedy Airport for his flight to Paris.

When he was approached on the plane by Port Authority cops, he said, "What is this about?" sources said. He was then taken off without handcuffs.

Two law enforcement sources said Strauss-Kahn was trying to flee the US. Police said he left his cellphone and other personal items in the room.

Strauss-Kahn, who had a meeting planned for today with German chancellor Angela Merkel, has a special arrangement with Air France that allows him to get on any flight and sit in first class, the sources said. He was traveling alone.

The NYPD’s Special Victims Unit is investigating the case, the sources said.

The victim was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where she was being treated for trauma.

Strauss-Kahn, a leader of France’s Socialist Party, is a longtime rival to Sarkozy, who was said in a news report today to have kicked off a smear campaign that focused on his lavish lifestyle. It included Strauss-Kahn’s purchase of suits from the same tailor who clothes President Obama.

But Strauss-Kahn seems able to find trouble on his own. In 2008, he publicly admitted to "an error of judgment" for having an affair with an IMF subordinate.

In France’s 2007 vote, Strauss-Kahn lost the Socialist Party nomination to Segolene Royal, who in turn fell to defeat against Sarkozy, leader of the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement.

But Sarkozy, who still sees Strauss-Kahn as his likeliest electoral rival, is believed to have maneuvered him out of France by backing him to head the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.

Strauss-Kahn is married to New York-born Anne Sinclair, a leading French TV journalist. She is his third wife; he has four children from two prior marriages.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department had no immediate comment. IMF did not immediately return calls.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
elitists

China: Force is never the answer (unless we are the ones using force)

Hu is so right.  History has shown that force ... is very often the answer Mr. Hu.  That point aside, China operates on the same premise - force is necessary to hold on to what it has.  If you didn't use force Mr. Hu, you would be in prison, China would not be raping Africa nor South America, China would not be instigating Middle East problems, and China would be democratic.  And Mr. Hu, when you are in a quiet place, alone, thinking about how things could be different - you know I am right.




China's Hu tells Sarkozy dialogue way out of Libya crisis



Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:35am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao told visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday that the crisis in Libya can be solved only through dialogue, not force.

"History has repeatedly proved that the use of force is not an answer to problems," Hu told Sarkozy in Beijing, according to Chinese state television news.

"Dialogue and other peaceful means are the ultimate solution to problems," said Hu in their talks about Libya.

China abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote that authorized a no-fly zone in Libya and military action against the forces of Muammar Gaddafi. But since then Beijing has accused Western countries of overreaching in their campaign against Gaddafi.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
china

France: Sarkozy has made a decision, taken leadership on Libya (Obama still not sure what to do)

France formally recognises Libyan rebels' authority


By News Wires the 10/03/2011 - 12:15


AP - Libya’s opposition battled for military and diplomatic advantage against Moammar Gadhafi’s embattled regime on Thursday, winning official recognition from France and hitting government forces with heavy weapons on the road to the capital.

France became the first country to formally recognize the rebels’ newly created Interim Governing Council, saying it planned to exchange ambassadors after President Nicolas Sarkozy met with two representatives of the group based in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

The international Red Cross said dozens of civilians have been wounded or killed in recent days in grueling battles between Gadhafi’s army and the opposition movement trying to oust him.

The fighting intensified on the main front line between the Mediterranean oil port of Ras Lanouf and the city of Bin Jawwad, where the rebels appeared to be have established better supply lines bringing heavy weapons like multiple-rocket launcher trucks and small tanks to the battle.

Youssef Fittori, a major in the opposition force, said a mix of defectors from Gadhafi’s special forces and civilain rebels were fighting government forces about 12 miles west of Ras Lanouf on the main coastal road to Bin Jawwad.

“Today, God willing, we will take Bin Jawwad. We are moving forward,” he said.

Red Cross President Jakob Kellenberger said local doctors over the past few days saw a sharp increase in casualties arriving at hospitals in Ajdabiya, in the rebel-held east, and Misrata, in government territory.

Both places saw heavy fighting and air strikes, he said.

Kellenberger said 40 patients were treated for serious injuries in Misrata and 22 dead were taken there.

He said the Red Cross surgical team in Ajdabiya operated on 55 wounded over the past week and “civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence.”

He said the aid organization is cut off from access in western areas including Tripoli but believes those are “even more severely affected by the fighting” than eastern rebel-held territories.

Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported Thursday that it lost direct contact a week ago with its correspondent who was covering the unrest in Libya, and the paper said it feared he had been taken prisoner along with another unnamed journalist and a Libyan guide.

The newspaper, one of Brazil’s largest, said it had been receiving until Sunday what it characterized as “indirect information” indicating Andrei Netto was alright in the region of Zawiya.

But on Wednesday the newspaper said it received information suggesting Netto had been taken prisoner by Libyan government forces, and that a Libyan official said the information was “probably correct.”

Netto entered Libya on Feb. 19 from the border with Tunisia and worked his way toward Zawiya, the newspaper said. He is the publication’s Paris correspondent.

Brazil’s government, its embassy in Libya, the Red Cross and other groups are trying to find out more about Netto and to determine he is safe, the newspaper said.













 
 
 
 
 
 
obama

Multiculturalism has failed, says French president



AFP
Thu Feb 10, 6:10 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.

"My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure," he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.

"Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want... a society where communities coexist side by side.

"If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France," the right-wing president said.

"The French national community cannot accept a change in its lifestyle, equality between men and women... freedom for little girls to go to school," he said.

"We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him," Sarkozy said in the TFI channel show.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia's ex-prime minister John Howard and Spanish ex-premier Jose Maria Aznar have also recently said multicultural policies have not successfully integrated immigrants.

Merkel in October said efforts towards multiculturalism in Germany had "failed, totally."

The comment followed weeks of anguished debate sparked by the huge popularity of a book by a central banker saying that immigrants, in particular Muslims, were making Germany "more stupid."

Britain's Cameron last week pronounced his country's long-standing policy of multiculturalism a failure, calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown extremism.

He urged a "more active, muscular liberalism" where equal rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy are actively promoted to create a stronger national identity.

The prime minister, who took power in May 2010, argued that "under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream".

He said this had resulted in a lack of national identity in Britain which had made some young Muslims turn to extremist ideology.

Sarkozy said in his television interview Thursday that "our Muslim compatriots must be able to practise their religion, as any citizen can," but he noted "we in France do not want people to pray in an ostentatious way in the street."

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen late last year came under fire for comparing Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.

Marine Le Pen said there were "ten to fifteen" places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when these were full.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
france

France and their Annual Property Destruction

Europeans are rarely overtly racist.  They would never put a bedsheet on their head and go prancing about like Casper.  Yet, I would proffer they are more racist than any random American albeit, they would make it sound entirely non-racist even while they would argue for the most racist idea since eugenics and the Nazis.  How do they do it?  Often it is not what they say or write but what they fail to say or write.

The depressed neighborhoods referenced in the Reuters article below - immigrant neighborhoods and a vast majority are Muslim.



France braces for annual New Year's car torchings



Fri Dec 31, 5:52 am ET

PARIS (Reuters) – France will deploy extra police and keep vandalism statistics under wraps on New Year's Eve to fight what authorities say has become an annual "sweepstakes" of disaffected youths competing to see who can burn the most cars.

Youths in depressed suburbs of French cities have been torching hundreds of vehicles on New Year's Eve and Bastille Day since the early 1990s. Police say the annual rite has turned competitive, with youths tracking the news in the first days of the new year to see which neighborhood did the most damage.

"I have decided to put an end to the competition, the sweepstakes, and will longer publish the number of burned vehicles," Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said this week, adding that publishing statistics encouraged vandalism.

Opposition politicians described the move as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government to cover up the violence.

"The government tends to eliminate unfavorable indicators. The interior minister has been publishing trumped-up statistics for years, and now Hortefeux is going even further," Socialist deputy Delphine Batho, a security specialist, told Reuters.

Last year, the Interior Ministry said 1,137 cars had been torched, a 30 percent rise on 2008. French media reported at the time that several thousand cars had been burned.

Nearly 54,000 police officers will be deployed across France, a rise of some 6,000 compared to normal New Year's Eve staffing levels, and additional command posts set up in several cities, Hortefeux said on Friday.

The image of burning cars remains particularly evocative in France in the wake of urban riots in December 2005. Sarkozy came to power in 2007 promising to quell violence, but crime and vandalism have inched up in the past year.

Arson in France's "sensitive urban areas" rose by 17.2 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to a 2010 study by the Observatory of Sensitive Urban Zones. In 2009 a total of 12,874 cars were burned, it reported.



Why buy a car?  In fact, come December 30, you may want to hide your car!







 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EUROS

French Slackers

On the RFI English website, an article titled: Are the French a Bunch of Lazy Slackers

Some bits from that article:

Under Strikes, the article states that no, France is not the leader of strikes, that award goes to Canada, and Denmark just had a bad strike worse than the French so the French can't be too bad, except throwing those bits into the argument don't change the fact that according to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions - France topped the list for number and length of strikes for 2005-2009.


Hours worked is AMAZING.  The AVERAGE French worker works 1453 hours a year.  Which doesn't mean much to us unless we do a weekly average -  27 hours a week. 

Life is hard!

Retirement is confusing.  Presently they may retire at 60, down from 65 in 1982.  Work 27 hrs a week on average and retire at 60.  Life is hard.  The article goes on to confuse things a bit by stating that "At present French women can retire at the same age as women in Italy, South Korea, Hungary, the UK, Greece and Poland but earlier than Turks and Czechs. Men have the lowest minimum retirement age in the OECD. The government's proposals will bring them in line with Czechs and Hungarians and raise the age that retirees can claim the full pension to 67, provided they have paid over 40 years of contributions." 

However, other statements on this issue present a different picture - that the government wants to raise the retirement age to 62 when benefits are first collected, from 60.  Changing the full benefits realized at 65 to 67.  Basically increasing it by 2 years, not 7, as the article implies.

Lazy Slackers.








 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
lazy

French Racism and Hate-Mongering

French perfume designer under fire for racial slur


By The CNN Wire Staff
October 16, 2010 5:08 p.m. EDT


Paris, France -- French anti-racism group SOS-Racisme plans to file a legal complaint against perfume designer Jean-Paul Guerlain following a racist remark he made on French television.

Guerlain -- who is no longer connected with the perfume company that bears his name -- made the remarks during an interview with France 2 on Friday about his career and the making of Samsara, one of his famous perfumes he created to impress a woman.

"One day I told her -- and I still called her Madame -- 'What would seduce you if one was to make a perfume for you?' and she told me, 'I love jasmine, rose and sandalwood,'" Guerlain recalled.

"And for once I started working like a [racial epithet]. I don't know if [racial epithet] ever worked that hard," he said.

Guerlain issued an apology following the interview's broadcast, which a France 2 anchor read during the network's evening newscast.

"My words do not reflect in any way my profound thoughts but are due to an inopportune misspeaking which I vividly regret," the apology read.

According to a Guerlain company spokesperson, Guerlain has not been an employee since 2002. He now counsels the company as a "nose" for some perfumes.

SOS-Racisme said it is not satisfied with Guerlain's apology and will bring action against him. Guerlain could be issued a fine if the complaint goes before a magistrate.

Louis-Georges Tin, a spokesman for the Council Representative of Black Associations, told French radio RTL that his group also will join in the complaint.

"Until now we thought that Mr. Guerlain was the ambassador of grace, and he made comments particularly disgraceful, even a bit foul," Tin said.

"That's why we are shocked. These comments are racist, of course, which harken back to the colonial period and it seems unacceptable. For now, we are planning to file a complaint," he said.

France's finance minister, Christine Laguarde, also weighed in on the comments, telling RTL on Saturday, "It's pathetic. I simply hope this is just senile and grotesque, that the apologies will really be sincere and gracious, but this is truly pathetic."





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RACE

France: Why are they killing their children?

Why Are French Women Killing Their Babies?

By Bruce Crumley
Paris Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010
Time


The question is as horrifying as it is important to ask: Why are a rising number of French women killing their newborn babies? Finding the answer has become a matter of urgency following the discovery on Wednesday of eight infants allegedly smothered to death and buried by their mother in northern France. And with that case marking at least the fifth instance of multiple infanticide reported in France since 2003, it has become vital for the nation to confront the phenomenon that appears to be behind it all: a mental condition known as pregnancy denial.

This latest case of newborn murder in France was uncovered in the northern town of Villiers-au-Tertre, after eight tiny bodies were found buried in the gardens of two separate homes. Six of the cadavers were unearthed on July 29 by police at the house of Dominique Cottrez, 45, and her husband Pierre-Marie, 47. Investigators searched their home after the resident of a house previously owned by Dominique's parents turned up two tiny bodies on July 24 while digging a pool in the backyard. According to the French prosecutor leading the inquiry in the town, a short distance south of Lille, Dominique has admitted to hiding her pregnancies — and the killings of her babies — from her husband, whom police describe as being "dumbstruck" by the revelations. Dominique was charged for the murders; Pierre-Marie has been cleared of wrongdoing and released but could yet become a subject of investigation.


The case in Villiers-au-Tertre is only the most recent example of a father of slain babies being apparently unaware of his wife's pregnancies. Four other such cases since 2003 include that of Véronique Courjault, 42, who was convicted in June 2009 of killing three of her newborns — two of whom she hid in a freezer and were later discovered by her husband. And this past March, Céline Lesage, 38, was found guilty of murdering six of her babies after she hid her pregnancies from the men who had fathered them. Both women were sentenced to prison — Courjault for eight years and Lesage for 15.

Experts explained those cases as resulting from pregnancy denial, an often misunderstood and minimized condition. According to Michel Delcroix, a former gynecologist who served as a court expert in the Courjault trial and others involving pregnancy issues, pregnancy denial is a quasi-schizophrenic condition in which women either don't realize or cannot accept that they are with child — not even enough to have an abortion. Whether these women are afflicted with the condition before they deliver or as they're suddenly giving birth, Delcroix explains, the psychological denial is so strong that they refuse to believe they're pregnant even when the reality confronts them.

"These women are so convinced pregnancy is impossible that once the child they never wanted arrives, they don't accept it as real and get rid of it to restore order to what they believe is nonpregnant reality," Delcroix says. "However terrible its consequences, pregnancy denial acts in infanticide cases much as a psychotic state that drives someone to kill another person does. Yet we still try women for what they do during pregnancy denial when we don't try psychotic killers deemed not responsible for their actions." Delcroix and others who are fighting for pregnancy denial to be medically and legally recognized as an illness argue that improving ways to identify and treat these women makes more sense than simply punishing the crimes they commit as a result of it.

What causes the condition? Several things, Delcroix says, including previous trauma such as beatings and rape. But other, nonphysical factors can also be involved, and denial can kick in even if a woman has already had and raised children without a problem — Lesage has a 14-year-old son; Dominique Cottrez has two grown daughters. And while pregnancy denial has been around for decades or longer, Delcroix says it's rising in frequency. The probable reason, he says, is changes in wider social factors that have downgraded the value of childhood, parenting and family.

But in some cases, it can also be a matter of women simply failing to see themselves as mothers. "Some women never manage to update their self-identity during pregnancy, [while others] want to become pregnant without wanting to procreate," psychiatrist Pierre Lamothe told Le Parisien on Thursday. "When the child arrives, it doesn't really exist for them. They don't give it life, in psychological terms. If they saw it as a [real] baby, they wouldn't kill it."

Others just never realize — or acknowledge — that they're with child. Experts on pregnancy denial say most sufferers are either sufficiently overweight or experience such little body change that they simply assume they've gained some weight. In France, 230 women a year discover their pregnancy only while giving birth. Though just a fraction resort to infanticide, Delcroix fears there are more of those cases that remain undiscovered than there are ones that come to light, as in Villiers-au-Tertre. And he poses a chilling question: Does anyone really believe that the spreading phenomenon of pregnancy denial — and the infanticide it can lead to — is purely a French problem?

























the french

France and the Burqa: Life in the French Republic "is carried out with a bare face."

French parliament debates ban on burqa-style veils



Associated Press
By ANGELA DOLAND

July 6, 2010


PARIS -France's justice minister went before parliament Tuesday to defend a hotly debated bill that would ban burqa-style Islamic veils in public, arguing that hiding your face from your neighbors is a violation of French values.

Michele Alliot-Marie's speech at the National Assembly marked the start of parliamentary debate on the bill. It is widely expected to become law, despite the concerns of many French Muslims, who fear it will stigmatize them. Many law scholars also argue it would violate the constitution.

The government has used various strategies to sell the proposal, casting it at times as a way to promote equality between the sexes, to protect oppressed women or to ensure security in public places.

Alliot-Marie argued that it has nothing to do with religion or security — she argued simply that life in the French Republic "is carried out with a bare face."

"It is a question of dignity, equality and transparency," she said in a speech that made scant mention of Muslim veils. Officials have taken pains to craft language that does not single out Muslims: While the proposed legislation is colloquially referred to as the "anti-burqa law," it is officially called "the bill to forbid covering one's face in public."

Ordinary Muslim headscarves are common in France, but face-covering veils are a rarity — the Interior Ministry says only 1,900 women in France wear them.

Yet the planned law would be a turning point for Islam in a country with a Muslim population of at least 5 million people, the largest in western Europe.

France is determined to protect the country's deeply rooted secular values, and the conservative government is encouraging a moderate, state-sanctioned Islam that respects the secular state. Last week Prime Minister Francois Fillon inaugurated a mosque in the Paris suburbs.

Lawmakers at the National Assembly are expected to vote on the bill July 13. It goes to the Senate in September.

The legislation would forbid face-covering Muslim veils such as the niqab or burqa in all public places in France, even in the street. It calls for euro150 ($185) fines or citizenship classes for women who run afoul of the law, and in some cases both.

Part of the bill is aimed at husbands and fathers who impose such veils on female family members. Anyone convicted of forcing a woman to wear such a veil risks a year of prison and a euro30,000 fine — with both those penalties doubled if the victim is a minor.

France "does not accept attacks on human dignity," Alliot-Marie said. "It does not tolerate the abuse of vulnerable people."

France's opposition Socialists agree with much of the draft law, although they say a ban shouldn't be applicable everywhere — just in certain places, such as government buildings, hospitals and public transport.

"We're not going into this debate with a head-on attack," Jean-Marc Ayrault, who heads the Socialists in the French National Assembly, told Associated Press Television News.

The justice minister argued that the law must be applicable everywhere to be coherent — but she nonetheless presented a host of exceptions to the face-covering ban, such as masks worn for health reasons, for sports like fencing and at public fetes such as carnivals.

Authorities in several European countries have been debating similar bans. Belgium's lower house has enacted a ban on the face-covering veil, though it must be ratified by the upper chamber.

Said Aalla, president of a mosque in the eastern city of Strasbourg, said he believes legislators have the right to pass laws on societal issues. But like many French Muslims, he is concerned about how police will enforce it.

"Is this a law that is going to be implemented in a serene way, so as not to stigmatize the Muslim population?" he asked.

Amnesty International has urged French lawmakers to reject the bill, and a French anti-racism group, MRAP, which opposes such dress, has said a law would be "useless and dangerous." France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, warned in March that a total ban risks being found unconstitutional.

France banned common Muslim headscarves and other obvious religious symbols from classrooms in 2004.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Islam

The French and their Displeasure over Donations

French condemn 'mean' British over memorial



French fundraisers have condemned the British as "mean" after less than ten donated money for a statue in honour of one of the few living heroes of D-Day.


4 Jun 2010
The Telegraph





Piper Bill Millin, now 86, braved enemy fire on Sword Beach in Normandy to play 'Highland Laddie' on his bagpipes repeatedly to boost morale among the landing troops,


But one year after a French pipe band launched a campaign to raise £80,000 for a bronze statue of Piper Millin they revealed that just eight Britons have contributed.

The majority of the money raised so far has come from the French who made 66 out of 87 donations. A handful of donations have also come from Americans, Swiss and Belgians.

Organisers are still £70,000 short of their target.

[I would be interested in knowing how much was sent by those handful of donations from America and the 8 Britons - of the 10,000.  By the way France, they liberated YOUR country.  Perhaps you should be erecting these statues everywhere using YOUR money.  Why is it we/them/someone saves your ass and each time must then take responsibility for ensuring YOU remember.  Perhaps it is time for your collective memory to kick in.]

Leading fund raiser Serge Athenour de Gourdon, president of the Mary Queen of Scots Pipe Band of France, revealed he was "disappointed" by the reaction so far from across the channel.

Mr Athenour de Gourdon, a policeman, said: "I hesitate to say it, but it is a bit mean. The image of Bill coming ashore playing his pipes s iconic.

"All the men who helped liberate Sword Beach that day were heroes and Bill had an important role in giving them the courage to face the onslaught.

"I hope we can raise more this weekend."

Piper Millin, who lives in a nursing home in Dawlish, Devon, has travelled to Normandy to help with the fundraising despite being confined to a wheelchair after suffering a stroke.

He said yesterday : "I never expected anything like this. I am pleased to be able to help raise some more money. It is very good of the French to do this for me."

He will be at Pegasus Bridge today at 11am for a ceremony and to sign books in return for donations, then at 3pm he will be at the cemetery at Omaha Beach.

Tomorrow he will attend a fund raising concert at 2.30pm at Colleville Montgomery.

Piper Millin, who was immortalised in the Oscar winning 1962 film The Longest Day, has never been honoured in Britain.

On D-Day he was a member of the 1st Commando Brigade under Lord Lovat, who ignored orders that no pipes should be played, because of worries about a high death toll.

He waded ashore wearing the kilt his father had worn in the First World War and was ordered to play.

He said: "I just said okay and got on with it."

He found out later that the Germans didn't try to shoot him as they thought he was mad.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
French

France Wants Out of the Euro

President Nicolas Sarkozy 'threatened to pull France out of euro'


President Nicolas Sarkozy slammed his fist on the table and threatened to pull France out of the euro at a meeting of European leaders deciding Greece's aid package last Friday, according to Spain's El Pais newspaper.


By a Reuters reporter in Madrid


12:12PM BST 14 May 2010

 
 
The newspaper cited comments by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to members of his party on Wednesday as relayed by people present at that meeting.


A spokesman for the Spanish Prime Minister's office confirmed the meeting between Zapatero and other socialist party members on Wednesday, but could not immediately confirm what was said at the meeting.
 
Sarkozy demanded a "commitment from everyone to suppport Greece...or France would reconsider its position in the euro," according to one source cited by El Pais.


Another source present at the meeting between Zapatero and his party members and cited by the paper said: "Sarkozy ended up banging his fist on the table and threatening to leave the euro...This forced Angela Merkel to give in and reach an agreement."

The European Union and International Monetary Fund agreed a 110 billion euro rescue plan for Greece last week. But Germany, which must shoulder a good deal of the burden, had proven reluctant to commit itself to a plan.

Zapatero told his party members that France, Italy and Spain had formed a united front against Germany at the Brussels meeting and that Sarkozy had threatened to break up a traditional France-Germany "hold" on the rest of Europe, according to El Pais.

The Elysee had no comment on the El Pais article.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
France

Legs Wide Shut says Miss France organizers

Euros are quite funny if you happened to be an alien who could leave when done watching.





Miss France in upheaval over bikinis, nudity

15:30 AEST Sat May 8 2010
By ninemsn staff



The long-time overseer of Miss France has accused Silvio Berlusconi’s media company of turning the beauty pageant into bawdy trash.


Genevieve de Fontenay, 77, has now demanded that each of the 37 regional committees for the long-running contest either side with her or the Italian prime minister’s company, Endemol France.

"Those (girls) who like opening their legs will be with Endemol and those with a bit of class will stay by my side," Mrs de Fontenay, who plans to start a rival pageant, reportedly told the UK Telegraph newspaper.

Mrs de Fontenay is a familiar face to the millions of Miss France viewers who tune in each year to the final of the contest, which is still seen as old-fashioned family entertainment.

Her husband set up the contest in 1954 and she took over when he died in 1981.

Endemol, the French arm of Mr Berlusconi’s media group Mediaset, bought the rights to the Miss France label in 2002, promising not to lower the decorous tone that Mrs de Fontenay has maintained within the pageant over the years.

It also paid her to oversee the pageant until the end of this year.

But Endemol has also ramped up the sex appeal of Miss France, instructing contestants to wear their hair down, rather than in a bun, and dress in bikinis instead of swimsuits for the final.

Matters came to a head when a French magazine published nude photos of Miss France contestant Kelly Bochenko, breaking Mrs de Fontenay’s rule that contestants never take their clothes off in public. Bochenko was then rewarded by Endemol with a spot on its reality TV show, Celebrity Farm.

Mrs de Fontenay vented her fury at Endemol executives, telling them they had "adulterated" the spirit of Miss France and then announced she was starting a rival pageant in December with stricter moral and dress codes.

Endemol responded by saying it plans sue the Miss France matriarch for unfair competition.

Regional committees and former Miss France laureates have been divided in their support for either Mrs de Fontenay or Endemol.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sex appeal