Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!......Sarkozy?

from the Guardian UK:



Sarkozy declares war on elitism and offers return to liberty, equality and fraternity

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
The Guardian, Thursday 18 December 2008


Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday went further than any modern French leader in denouncing the race and class discrimination that has poisoned France and made a mockery of the republican principles of liberty, equality and fraternity.

But the president's plans to get a more ethnically diverse section of people from disadvantaged estates into France's notoriously elitist top graduate schools, civil service, political parties and the media was greeted with caution by equality campaigners who said they would judge Sarkozy on his results.

The president made an impassioned speech to students at a prestigious graduate school, vowing to end the stranglehold of France's white, monocultural elite, entrenched from the early stages of the education system. He is keen to act on France's poor record on race equality before Barack Obama takes office in January. Sarkozy's advisers have been studying Obama's campaign tactics and rhetoric, which Sarkozy echoed yesterday, hammering out the word "change".

"How can we talk about a republic when your success at school and in professional life depends not on ... merit but largely on your social origin, the neighbourhood where you live, your name or the colour of your skin?" he asked. He said the republican principle of equality had become more myth than reality.

Discrimination in France remains a taboo subject for politicians. Only one of the 555 MPs from mainland France is non-white. In employment, French people of Algerian descent are far less likely to reach senior jobs than their counterparts of French descent with the same qualifications. CVs from people with non-French sounding names or postcodes in deprived areas are routinely discarded by companies. But discrimination is hard to measure. France follows the republican model of integration: once a person becomes a French citizen they are equal before a state that in theory is blind to colour, race and religion. Multiculturalism on the British model is seen as dangerous and divisive. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/18/sarkozy-diversity-policy-france-obama

Let's see if it's just words or actually a new way.