Laurent Fabius (see video) responds to Frêche's comment, saying that for him there is no doubt that the words were "anti-Semitic," while implying that he distinguishes between Frêche's words and Frêche himself. Aphatie reveals, however, that Gérard Depardieu has written a letter in support of Frêche's use of "a common French expression," while on the other side we also learn that Jean-Pierre Raffarin called Fabius to offer his consolation. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with characteristic subtlety, denounces the whole affair as a manipulation orchestrated by the PS:
La veille et le jour même nous étions saturés d’informations à propos de la grande manœuvre de la rue de Solferino contre Frèche. Il aura fallu passer la journée à répondre à une apparence de situation, « le PS sauve son âme plutôt qu’une région », alors même que nous en connaissions tous le dessous des cartes, lequel n’a rien à voir avec les versions officielles rabâchées jusqu'à la nausée comme d’habitude.And yet every cloud (and every dérapage) has a silver lining:
Mélenchon: Cette histoire avec Frèche [sic] est pain béni (ça c’est catholique), pour notre liste d’union de toute l’autre gauche «à gauche maintenant», en Languedoc
In short, we have here a classic French "mini-affair" in which everyone is free to present or invent à l'envi perfidious motives for the behavior of his enemies. This penchant for the second degree is ultimately wearisome and becomes, for the spectator, a kind of third degree (in both the figurative and the colloquial American senses).
4 comments:
"This penchant for the second degree is ultimately wearisome": too true, and an observation that is applicable in many contexts. It seems a permanent feature of organizational politics on all levels, or at all scales.
Mélenchon is certainly seizing his opportunity, but this doesn't make him--as you imply-a rank opportunist. On the one hand he makes a strong case--which you seem to dismiss but don't rebut--that the PS has behaved deplorably in its long pas de deux with Frêche, so that its claim to the moral high ground here is strained at best. On the other, the PG and friends in Languedoc-Roussillon are not just, as politicians do, making use of an opening: they are highlighting the general problem of a PS which has lost its soul, and would draw up a common list with the Devil himself if it promised them more seats. JLM's lengthy discussion, with particulars, makes his intervention seem less of a low blow and more of a reasoned explication--I hope your readers will follow the link to his blog and judge for themselves.
Montpellier-journal is anti-Frêche (it was more or less created to criticize him) YET it presents the full video.
I heard Martine Aubry summarize the story by saying "when you hear Frêche speak against Jews" (France 5 has a political program I sometimes watch on Sundays) - Frêche is a bully who knew he was being intolerant when he used the sentence against Fabius, but I do not hear him "speak against the Jews"!
Also, Martine Aubry ordered someone to create a new PS list - Hélène Mandroux who was about to defect and join Europe Ecologie. And the local PS rebuked Martine Aubry.
In short: it's a mess, 6 weeks before election day.
Another point of view:
http://www.acrimed.org/article3301.html
also: heard on the radio today, and from copé:
if the two top lists are Frêche and l'UMP, who will Martine Aubry support (and ask ps voters to vote for)?
Frêche's local work:
http://masterjournalisme.com/2004-2010-Quel-bilan-pour-Georges,1041
Post a Comment