French Election Update: France's Sarkozy breaks ground with North African Justice Minister

The Tocqueville Connection ^ | 18 May 2007 | staff

[Cincinna]

- President Nicolas Sarkozy sent out a powerful message to France's five million Muslims on Friday by appointing a woman of North African origin to the key post of justice minister.

    Rachida Dati, a 41-year-old newcomer to government who shot to national attention as Sarkozy's election campaign spokeswoman, is the first French Muslim politician to hold a top government job.

    Her appointment breaks important new ground in a country where north and west African immigrants and their children are severely under-represented in public life -- an imbalance seen as one of the reasons behind the 2005 riots.

    Tall and impeccably turned out, Dati grew up on a public housing estate in the western French city of Chalon sur Saone, the daughter of a Moroccan labourer and an illiterate Algerian mother.

    The second of 12 children, she worked her way through her studies as a nursing assistant, earning a raft of degrees in law, economics and business.

    Dati worked as a magistrate and an accountant, carrying out public and private sector audits, before becoming Sarkozy's advisor on delinquency in 2002 -- using fierce determination to break through to the right-winger's inner circle.

    "I wanted to work with him, so I wrote to him. No answer. I wrote again. Still no answer. But since I really, really really wanted this, I wrote to him again. That time, he wrote back," she told AFP at the time.

    "For him, I am not just a token Arab. I have a real advisor's role," she said.

    Dati sees herself as living proof that it is possible in French society to overcome poverty and discrimination through hard work.

    "We need to stop seeing people of immigrant background as either problems or victims," she once said.

    "It's not always easy for us to climb the social ladder. But the Republic makes success possible. Public examinations are the same for everyone."

    Dati does not see herself as a spokeswomen for France's troubled suburbs -- and has often been at loggerheads with community groups in the suburbs critical of Sarkozy's tough line on immigration and law and order.

    As justice minister, she would be in charge of rolling out Sarkozy's planned reform of criminal law, that would toughen sentences for young offenders, including from the suburbs.

    But Dati has also repeatedly defended Sarkozy against charges of racism sparked by his tough campaign talk on controlling immigration and defending French identity.

    She also supports Sarkozy's call for some form of affirmative action, based on socio-economic rather than ethnic grounds.

    But there is strong resistance in France to US-style affirmative action, with critics saying it would undermine the Republican principle of equal citizenship regardless of race or religion.

    The riots two years ago in high-immigration French suburbs cast the spotlight on ethnic discrimination in the job market and public life, but there have been few signs of radical change.

    There are currently 10 black deputies in the 577-seat lower house National Assembly, all from French overseas territories in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.

    Among the 555 elected in mainland France, none are black or of Muslim North African origin.

[Cincinna]

The Socialists are screaming about the right wing lunatic Sarko wanting to install a UMP dictatorship type fascist state. Guess what? Nobody is listening.

He cut the ground out from under them, right before the Legislative Elections. His party UMP, with some pro-UMP members of UDF are expected to win by a large majority.

From early polling, some Centrists, and some Socialists are willing to give him a chance.

[Kitten Festival]

Hullooooo, Eurabia! It’s started!

[Kitten Festival]

If Sarko thinks she’s ok, I am all right with this. Remember: 44% of the worst banlieues voted for Sarko, that’s a heck of a lot of Muslims who don;t like socialism. Let’s see how this works out.

[Cincinna]

Nicolas Sarkozy has run his first few days in office as flawlessly as he ran his campaign

No empty campaign promises, appointing the most competent people, getting right down to work on the important dossiers.

It was inevitable, IMHO, that only the "right-wing" Sarkozy would appoint a woman of North African ancestry to a high Cabinet position. The Socialists, just like the Dimocrats are "NATO" - No Action, Talk Only.

RACHIDA DATI, MINISTER OF JUSTICE

Rachida Dati is France's Condi Rice

[Kitten Festival]

She's nice-looking and doesn't do veils. She will probably work out fine. Sarko is a wily operator and knows what he is doing.

[California Patriot]

“Let’s see how this works out.” I agree.

I don’t like the symbolism of this appointment, because it suggests that the permission of large elements of the immigrant community is needed before there can be real reform on these issues. But maybe that’s the reality. Certainly the woman seems admirable.

[AFPhys]

I”m glad to hear the polls now appear favorable for UMP. I hope he manages to get sufficient legislative support to enact his agenda quickly.

[Kitten Festival]

The thing is, he’s picking out the good ones and empowering them. The neerdowells are now left on the sidelines, screeching about oppression. Well, it’s not oppression, it’s just their bad attitudes, entitlement mentality and islamofascism that’s their problem. People like Dati do just fine and inspire the others.

Sarko’s outfoxing them all.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

And they probably don’t appreciate having their cars torched, or threats to their personal security from lawless mobs.

[Kitten Festival]

Zackly. They saw about all they wanted to see of the banlieue islamofascists and their socialist enablers.

[Cincinna]

There are still many French people living in these “suburbs” i.e. Housing Projects. Many poorer French, older people on small pensions. They want to take back their streets. Theye are the one who voted for Sarko. As well as many of Arabic origin who are secular, integrated, working people and small business people. They want their quality of life to improve as well.

An important point to keep in mind is that because of France’s colonial past, and strong influence,language, and culture, in places like Algeria, Morocco,Egypt, and Lebanon, many people were already French citizens when they came to France.

Many of them fought and died on the side of France in the Algerian War 1954-1962. After France lost, they moved to France and settled there.

Their children are French, think of themselves as French, speak French, subscribe to Western values, and they are hard-working people.

The danger is the Islamists. Radical Islam. It is very important to remember the distinction.

[Kitten Festival]

I’ve met good French Algerians in this category myself.

[Cincinna]

IMHO it is not just symbolic. Rachida Data was a highly trained, qualified and distinguished Judge (Magistrate) before she joined Sarko’s team as his chief spokesman and campaign advisor.

She is the child of immigrants, not an immigrant herself. She has always been on the Right politically. The immigrants hate her, and consider her a traitor.

She is like Condi Rice in many ways, viewed in her own group as a traitor, but able to be a role model for others who wish to pull themselves up by their bootstraps as she did, work very hard, get an education, and excel.

She is the true American success story, and that is why they hate her on the Left.

[milwguy]

There are a heck of a lot of muslims who want law and order and don’t like the islamofascists any more than the rest of the French do.

[syriacus]

I wonder if Obama would appoint a Muslim woman to a spot in his administration. Obama likes to speak out for Muslim male detainees, not Muslim women.

[California Patriot]

I can believe all that, and wouldn’t have assumed otherwise (that she was unqualified, was not in some sense on the right, etc.) I still think it reflects a bow toward PC symbolism, and as such, is a bad sign of the state of things in France. However, Dati may also be quite effective. My larger concern is really her and Sarko’s support for racial preferences.

[RedDogzRule]

I can’t help but admire an immigrant like her, who pulls herself up by her own bootstraps and doesn’t wait for handouts. She seems very accomplished and determined, much like the first big waves of immigrants to the USA 100 years ago...unlike so many illegal ones we have here today who demand entitlements.....

[California Patriot]

Agree.

[Cincinna]

Excellent point. She is 2nd generation. An excellent example for others who can see that if the will to succeed is there, it can happen for them too.

[jamese777]

Sarkozy also chose a socialist to be his Foreign Minister. The minute he selected Benard Kouchner, the Socialist Party expelled Kouchner from its ranks.