In two weeks, on Apr. 22, France will vote in the first round of the 2007 presidential election.  --  The three leading candidates are Nicolas Sarkozy on the right, Ségolène Royal on the left, and François Bayrou, a centrist candidate who has been the surprise of the campaign, and whom polls show could win if he can get to the second round, in which the two front-runners face off.  --  On Friday, a book attacking Nicolas Sarkozy was published by Azouz Begag, an author of North African descent who is supporting Bayrou and who has been minister for the promotion of equal opportunity in the current government, alongside Nicolas Sarkozy, who until recently served as interior minister.  --  Libération (Paris) published a short review of the book, which is translated below.[1] ...

1.

[Translated from Libération (Paris)]

Politics

Book of the day

"THE DESCENT INTO HELL" OF A MINISTER
By Alain Auffray

Libération (Paris)
April 7, 2007

http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/politiques/246146.FR.php

[Review of Azouz Begag, Un mouton dans la baignoire ('A Sheep in the Bathtub') (Paris: Fayard, 2007).  20 euros.]

Azouz Begag let people know:  "I'm keeping track of everything."  Threats and blows below the belt, humiliations and encouragements are the substance of this book, which goes on sale Friday.  The title of this chronicle of a minister for the promotion of equal opportunity during the period of the banlieue riots is Un Mouton dans la baignoire ('A Sheep in the Bathtub').  This is a reference to the "slip" by the UMP candidate [Nicolas Sarkozy] in February when he explained on TF1 that the Republic could not tolerate Muslims practicing sacrifices in their apartments.  On Thursday, prior to the publication of this blistering attack on Sarkozy, Begag, who earlier announced his support for François Bayrou, submitted his resignation from the government.  His presence was no longer tenable in a team directed by a prime minister who is supposed to be supporting the UMP candidate.

This narrative is the vengenace of a man who has been hurt, and *Marianne* is publishing excerpts.  It is also an edifying account of Sarkozy's methods.  Named minister in June 2005, Begag took a stand against the interior minister [i.e. Sarkozy] five months later when the first *banlieue* incidents broke out.  Interviewed by *Libération*, he said he was sorry for the "warlike semantics" of the man who had denounced the "scum" ('racaille' — the word used by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2005):   "I said that you can't say words like that in the banlieues."

This attack was never forgiven.  Begag describes what followed as a "descent into hell." He says he was harassed by "Sarkozyist ministers" who called him "Villepin's beur" (a slang term for a second-generation North African living in France).  In the midst of this storm, the account of an attempt at reconciliation with Sarkozy is an anthology piece:  "He places himself in front of me.  Logs are burning in the fireplace. He looks me right in the eye:  'Why are you attacking me, Azouz?' . . . He proposes that next Wednesday, the day of the Cabinet meeting, I come to meet him at the Interior Ministry offices and that we go together on foot to the Élysée palace, in front of the camerais.  I'm dumbstruck.  This man takes me for a clown!"  A few days later, Sarkozy is calling him an "idiot" ('connard'), threatening to "smash his face."

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Translated by Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Department of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447-0003
Phone: 253-535-7219
Home page: http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu