UNEDITED TELEVISION SCRIPT

France’s Interior Minister has been labelled a racist after a compromising video of him was published on Le Monde’s website in the past week. Hortefeux was caught on camera at the ruling UMP Party’s summer conference speaking to a party member of Arabic origin. Despite the jovial mood, Hortefeux said to the party member,“When there’s only one of them, it’s ok. When there are many of them, that’s when it’s a problem.”

‘Them’ in this context means Arabs or French people of Arabic origin. This coming from a former Immigration Minister, who doesn’t have a good image with minorities as it is, was hugely controversial.

Many in his ruling UMP party, including a senior advisor at the Elysee have said this incident shows the dangers of the internet which is a ‘threat to democracy’. Others have said the video was taken out of context.

Le Monde has struck back reminding critics that the video was taken at a public event to which the media had been invited. These were not images taken by some paparazzo during a private conversation.
What’s more, Le Monde contacted the Minister and the young man about whom the comments were made. The context therefore was provided, the paper insists.

Le Monde quotes the director of news website Rue89 who says blaming the internet for this furore is the equivalent of shooting the messenger. The issue is the message itself, not the bearer of the message. Brice Hortefeux’s role a government minister is “not compatible with racist humour”.

Now to Socialist Party shenanigans as reported by Le Figaro. Last week, a book was released that claimed Martine Aubry had won the election as Socialist Party leader due to fraud. The former Presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal who lost that poll by a little over 100 votes put pressure on Aubry last night, appearing on French television.

Aubry has more or less claimed that the book is full of lies and is suspiciously convenient for the ruling UMP party. Royal now says either the party leadership sanctions those responsible for the fraud if the claims are true or Aubry and the party should take legal action against the authors of the book for lying.

It’s a smart move, says Le Figaro. Royal is refusing to take legal action herself – this spares her the accusations of permanently dividing the party. The editorial says Aubry is in a lose-lose situation. Ifshe does nothing she’ll be accused of being complicit in the fraud. If she tries to pursue the authors of the book, who knows where that could lead – it could completely backfire. So much for reconciliation in the Socialist Party, the right-leaning Le Figaro smugly notes.

Have a look at this cartoon in Liberation, Martine Aubry and Hamid Karzai in a bar – “do you want to stuff a ballot box with me?” ‘Bourrer’ means ‘to stuff’ or ‘to get drunk’.

Libération carries coverage of the failure of restaurants to lower the prices on their menus, this despite the government lowering VAT from some 20% to 5.5%. Penalties for failure to comply are not imposed. Many in the ruling UMP party are furious over what they call the ‘fraud of the summer”. The measure has cost the state 2.4 billion euros.

Also in Libération as well as two of the business papers, controversy over granting a fourth mobile phone licence in France… For now, Orange, SFR and Bouygues are the three operators, the third being owned by a good friend of Sarkozy. Apparently the President is reticent about granting a fourth licence. Inevitably, Libération wonders if Sarkozy is giving his friend Martin Bouygues a helping hand…