Violence has spread to Belgium, albeit on a limited scale. The reason? Mayor Philippe Moureaux cited architecture and a lack of provocative politicians:
“Our situation cannot be compared with the French one. There are no huge, high-rise suburbs like in France… moreover, we do not have an interior minister like (Nicolas) Sarkozy, who starts provoking the troublemakers.”
Sarkozy, who is named as a possible candidate in the presidential election scheduled for 2007, has been getting a lot of heat. I find bizarre. First, he’s of immigrant stock, part Hungarian and part Jewish (and is often dubbed the “American” politician). As Interior Minister, he promised zero tolerance against underground crime, to promote law and order and social integration, and the participation of legal immigrants in local elections. He has had no kind words for the riots started two weeks ago, but you’re not going to win over riots with flowery words.
Why is this man the scapegoat? Yes, he’s a hardass and hasn’t been politically correct about the riots, but the comments of some would make him sound like Trotsky in Stalinist Russia—a schoolkid parent said, “Torching a school is unacceptable, but the one who put on the fire is Sarkozy.” In what way was this main weilding napalm?
Related note: the most amusingly stupid statement of the week comes from Turkish PM ErdoÄŸan, who said the French prohibition of headscarves in schools was one reason for the upsurge of violence. (Sorry Erdy—Turkey has the same laws!)
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COMMENTS / 9 COMMENTS
J.Kende added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 3:56 pmHere’s a thought for PM ErdoÄŸan: The rioters are the cause of the upsurge in violence.
Revolutionary, eh?
snow added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 4:06 pmI loved hearing Sarkozy’s comments about ‘scum’ and ‘thugs’. That sounds about right to me. It’s nice to hear a politician not pussy-footing around with politically correct descriptions of criminals.
Chirol added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 4:22 pmCurzon: Indeed. I wonder when the Turkish press will grill him for that.
I expected the rioters to “blame” Sarkozy’s comments and use them as an excuse for their violence and to avoid personal responsibility (a european hobby) but that the media is peddling such tripe is really outrageous.
It’s bad enough when blogger run that but how can a person paid to report actually get away with citing a comment, made after days of destruction, as part of the problem? He’s right, take no prisoners. But don’t count on Europeans to be open for reality.
While I dislike the right wing’s immediate blame of the riots on Islam and believe the situation is just a tad more complex, and hence that the underlying causes should be examined, I support the right in taking a hard line against these rioters, using firepower if necessary beacuse afterall, is there any other solution?
Chirol added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 4:37 pmIs this not likely an attempt by the touchy-feely left in France to try and discredit Sarkozy and the “tough” approach since he’s expected to be a strong candidate for president in 2007?
Dave Schuler added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 7:16 pmAs I wrote over at my place today my suspicion is that one of the reasons for the late response from the French government is political infighting between Sarkozy and de Villepin. They’ve decided to compromise: not enough force on the streets to actually put down the riots and not enough social reform to address the root causes.
Mike added these pithy words on 08 Nov 05 at 11:16 pmGreat decision by the French government to use a law from the Algerian War to justify a state of emergency…Do they really lack the power to do it under any other auspice, or is the media just making an issue out of it?
J.Kende added these pithy words on 09 Nov 05 at 6:04 am“They’ve decided to compromise: not enough force on the streets to actually put down the riots and not enough social reform to address the root causes.”
Odd, I see both force on the streets and social reform to be the positions of Sarkozy. Villepin wants more social surrender.
Pavlov3 added these pithy words on 09 Nov 05 at 6:10 amThe rioting “youths” are clearing showing the people skills that failed to get them jobs in the first place.—-
Honestly how smart is it to burn down shops in your own neighborhoods, burn thousands of cars then demand a better life complete with job. I am sure the business owners will sign up in droves to hire these morons as soon as they rebuild their burnt out shops.—-
No matter what programs the government puts in place, these idiots have set back race relations by decades.
Dan added these pithy words on 09 Nov 05 at 6:36 amthese idiots have set back race relations by decades.
Why are you assuming this isn’t their goal?
