Clever Moves
Sarkozy announced his new government, which has halved in size from its predecessors. Bernard Kouchner will be Foreign Minister, which has left the Socialist Party bitter and in bits. Kouchner supported the invasion of Iraq.
Rachida Dati, daughter of North African parents, and a successful spokeswoman for Sarkozy, will become Justice Minister. This is the first time a senior post has been held by an ethnic minority and given the rampant mysoginism in the banlieues this is great news. She backs affirmative action and I have to say that France is in dire need of it. Im not sure why the West insists in labelling someone by a religion when she hasnt openly claimed to 'belong' to it. Especially since France prides itself in a secular tradition. Dati sees herself as living proof that it is possible in French society to overcome poverty and discrimination through hard work.
"We need to stop seeing people of immigrant background as either problems or victims," she once said. "It's not always easy for us to climb the social ladder. But the Republic makes success possible. Public examinations are the same for everyone."
But neither does she see herself as a spokeswomen for France's troubled suburbs -- and has often been at loggerheads with community groups in the suburbs critical of Sarkozy's tough line on immigration and law and order, a remit she will now take on.
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