Posted on 05/06/2007 10:30:22 PM PDT by Cincinna
LA COURNEUEVE, France, May 6, 2007 (AFP) - As news of rightwinger Nocolas Sarkozy's presidential victory flashed up on the television in the cafe, Gnyma Cisse buried her head in her hands in a mixture of frustration and fury.
"I'm disgusted," said Cisse, 23, who had gathered to watch the election coverage in Le Metro cafe which caters to a largely immigrant and first generation French-born clientelle in the La Courneuve suburb of Paris.
Cisse, of Sengalese origin, called her sister-in-law who lives here without French nationality.
"Pack your bags. The planes are already on standby," she said, alluding to Sarkozy's tough immigration policy and his decision as interior minister to step up the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
"There's nothing good about this," Meziane Ourad, an unemployed 50-year-old, said of the election result as he smoked one in a seemingly endless chain of cigarettes.
"France is entering uncharted waters. This is going to be an oppressive society," said Ourad, who brought his family to France from Algeria 20 years ago.
His only hope, he said, was that legislative elections in June would produce a National Assembly controlled by a grouping other than Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and therefore provide a counterpoint to the powerful executive office.
"Otherwise, we've got five terrible years ahead," he said.
Karim, a 28-year-old fishmonger of Algerian and Moroccan parentage, said he could not understand what he described as Sarkozy's "hatred" of foreigners.
"Sarkozy says he likes the France that gets up early. Well, when he gets up early in the morning, he'll find that France is made up of black and Arabs," he said.
Like other high-immigrant Parisian suburbs, La Courneueve witnessed weeks of rioting in 2005 by angry residents who complained of being excluded from the French mainstream.
"I voted Segolene!" a group of young women of African origin chanted in unison, displaying their loyalty to the defeated presidential candidate, Socialist Segolene Royal.
"I really like her. She's not a racist," said Assetou, 19. "God knows I hope she'll be president one day."
Several locals predicted that the 2005 riots would revisist La Courneuve.
"With Sarkozy, the riots will be permanent," said Farid, 25, a delivery man.
Mohamed Mechmache, the head of AC le Feu, a grassroots suburban association set up in the wake of the violence 18 months ago ago, told reporters after Sarkozy's victory that France "had failed to understand the message" of 2005.
"There are those who live well, the rich people, and those who will continue to suffer a lot," Mechmache said. "The disparity is enormous."
There is a substantial minority of French who are conservative and very much salt of the earth people.
You never hear from them because they get shouted down by the leftists, who resort to all sorts of calumnies against them.
Note in this article it is implied that Sarkozy is a 'racist' who 'hates foreigners' and who will institute an 'oppressive government'.
This specious crap is exactly why the conservatives in France have taken so long to come into their own... they are automatically scorned by the leftists.
In so many ways this election is a huge, huge shift in international politics.
It will reverberate here in the US as well, IMHO.
“”There are those who live well, the rich people, and those who will continue to suffer a lot,” Mechmache said. “The disparity is enormous.””
And this is under more then 30 years of left leaning rule, why the heck would you *not* give something else a chance!
EXACTLY right.
My thoughts exactly.
Sounds to me like they understood the message perfectly.
Without the multicultural pandering we wouldn't be in this growing mess. The pandering is the result of the "one socialist/communist world under the aegis of the United Nations" nonsense.
At the dentist's the other day I picked up the Jamestown-founding issue of National Geographic. I literally threw it down when I discovered its rhetoric about how savage white Europeans invaded and stole a country from the innocent, god-like, peace-loving Noble Savages, ad nauseum.
Since the 1960s there has been a powerful organized domestic and worldwide movement to deligitimize the United States of America. Most mass media are in its forefront and, sadly, so are some of our own most prominent elected officials. Like most of Western Europe, our nation is being "diversified" into oblivion.
Sarkosy will be perpetually “right-winger Sarkosy” in the media, both in France and here.
The new “W” has been born, as far as the media and all the other leftists are concerned.
Madame Pelosi will assuredly not have a visit to him on her agenda.
It may be time for us to once again vacation in beautiful France. - if it were not so expensive.
The warring of American Indians against American Indians prior to Columbus has been effectively obliterated from the teaching of U. S. history.
Yet, truth will always out as long as they can’t destroy the historical texts - which they would like very much to do.
They cannot live a lie.
I wouldn’t try rioting. Sarkozy might know how to properly handle rioters.
Anytime you do for people what they can’t or won’t do for themselves, you earn their lasting ingraditude and deep enmity.
Ingratitude; sorry.
...TO ME SOUNDS as a (not too) VEILED MENACE....
What does a pack of smokes cost in France?
He called the rioters scum. Gee, would any of our pols do the same???No!; too PC. And he is going after the feather bedding unions. Would we? No. Too PC. When he comes to meet Bush, will the leftist socialist pacifists which are , is, the Dem Party today, meet with him. Maybe but they won’t like it!!
Mohamed Mechmache, the head of AC le Feu, a grassroots suburban association set up in the wake of the violence 18 months ago ago, told reporters after Sarkozy’s victory that France “had failed to understand the message” of 2005.
I’d say the French understood the message but reject it.
Why don’t they get the **** out of France, if they think Sarkozy is that bad??????
Few read much of the mass media anymore.
The problems in France (IMO) stem, in large part, to thier crazy press. If you have cable you can see/hear some of the crap that passes for reporting in France.
In the USofA the media is at war with the Governement.
"Pack your bags. The planes are already on standby," she said, alluding to Sarkozy's tough immigration policy and his decision as interior minister to step up the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
Planes!?!?! How about a bus to the nearest port where you get to embark on a cargo ship. Wow, they are spoiled.
Mooligans.
They shout and punch like hooligans,
As they burn a car, or fifty.
Mais oui! They are Les Mooligans.
And way, way short of nifty.
There’s a hidden connection between Bush and the French riots...
Bush — rush — rust — must — most — moot — root — riot
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