FRANCE: Divisions within the French government over three weeks of rioting in the immigrant suburbs (banlieues) became more apparent yesterday when interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy published a half-page opinion piece in Le Figaro explaining his proposal for "positive discrimination".
Prime minister Dominique de Villepin rejected Mr Sarkozy's ideas in an interview with RTL radio. The two men are expected to compete for the right-wing presidential nomination in 2007.
"The flare-up of violence that shook our big cities cast a harsh light on the failings of our model of society," Mr Sarkozy wrote.
By contrast, Mr de Villepin wants to preserve the present system. "We must not fix by renouncing our French model, a universal model under which each individual is respected for who he is, independent of his colour," the prime minister said. "We must correct the inequalities. . . but without taking into account ethnicity or religion - which is the nature of positive discrimination." President Jacques Chirac is allied with Mr de Villepin in the contest of wills over the banlieues. This week, Mr Chirac encouraged mayors, trade union leaders and the heads of television stations to hire minorities. But he opposed quotas on the ground they are "not in conformity with the republican system".
Mr Sarkozy said it was "absurd" to accuse him of advocating "ethnic quotas". On a visit to a banlieue yesterday, Mr de Villepin announced he was preparing a law "on equality of chances" which would be presented to the council of ministers within weeks.
As if anticipating the announcement, Mr Sarkozy wrote: "Proclaiming equality before the law is no longer enough: henceforward we must promote equality by [ using] the law." France has poured €40 billion into its urban policy, yet one in two youths of immigrant origin are unemployed, and six times more drop out of school than other French teenagers, Mr Sarkozy noted. He says the state must set an example by offering higher salaries to attract better qualified teacher to the banlieues, reserving a certain number of places in France's grandes écoles for students from the ghettos, and offering scholarships to those who wish to sit civil service exams.
The experience of the French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut shows how sensitive the racial issue is here. The anti-racism group MRAP has filed a law suit against Mr Finkielkraut for "inciting and provoking racial hatred" in a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Mr Finkielkraut said the fact that most of the rioters were black or Arab showed the riots were "ethnic and religious".
He claimed "the hatred of blacks [against France] is even worse than that of the Arabs" and that it was "impossible" for a restaurant owner to hire a youth who speaks with "the accent of the banlieues".