Keeping Up With Ségolène - Part 2

News about Ségolène Royal is tumbling out of the websites faster than I can keep up. She has made several more of her signature gaffes, she has intimidated the bloggers who criticize her, she has had one prominent socialist removed from the party for racist comments and she has made a trip to Martinique where she repeated her desire to be president of a "mixed" France (mixed blood, that is). If she is mixed up on certain issues, she seems to be wielding her sword effectively on others. There are hints, notably from BHL (socialist philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy) that she may not get through the campaign.

Here is a very brief summary of her comings and goings:

From France-Echos comes this video where she states that in France one woman out of three is "assassinated" by her spouse (or partner). She deplores the fact that these figures are never discussed in the media because it has become a routine event...

I don't know if the verb "assassiner" is used loosely in France today to mean "to beat up". Nor do I know if 33% of all women are beaten so harshly that they die or come close to it. Nor do I know if she was speaking of ethnic French women or foreigners.

Anyway, France-Echos said it was a "superchérie" - a complete lie.

Another video at France-Echos that has been mentioned at many websites shows her total lack of military knowledge. During an interview on RMC (Radio Monte-Carlo) she was asked by Jean-Jacques Bourdin if France really needed so many nuclear submarines.
The dialogue went as follows:

Bourdin: How many do we have?

Ségo avoids the question twice, but Bourdin repeats it twice.

Ségo: We have...uh..ONE.

Bourdin: No. We have SEVEN.

Ségo: Yes, seven, yes.

France-Echos reminds us that she would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces and responsible for nuclear weapons...

Moving on. Le Conservateur who has been severely critical of her and who has spoken of her alleged love affair with Louis Schweitzer, head of HALDE (High Authority in the Fight Against Discrimination, etc...) tells of a fellow blogger named Major Tom who has received a warning from Ségo's lawyer, Attorney Mignard of Lysias Partners law firm. The warning, in the form of a "mise en demeure", which is similar to an ultimatum, is over the allegations of her affair with Mr. Schweitzer. Le Conservateur has this to say:

I have noticed that Lysias has been visiting my website. Perhaps my ultimatum is now being prepared.

My advice to Major Tom is to give in and to censor all references to this love affair within 48 hours. The topic is not worth a confrontation and this move on the part of Madame Royal is already a victory for the incriminated blogs - a victory for freedom of expression against sectarianism.

It goes without saying that defamation, insults and offensive language used against the candidate are ineffective, useless and lacking in the class that befits a blog. Still, the question remains: where does repression stop?

As for the trip to Martinique (photo), she made no major error that I know of, probably because she felt herself to be in much friendlier territory where her basically anti-French point of view is highly regarded. This is from Nouvel Obs:

Before several hundred people gathered at the market place in Fort-de-France, the socialist candidate urged the French to look lucidly at all the periods of their history, including colonization:

"It is the necessary condition for a History that is shared, assured, appeased, in a Republic that welcomes all of its members and that tolerates no discrimination...I will not allow us to speak of children of the first, second, third generation. You are, we are all, the young people are all children of this Republic that must open its arms...Racial mixture, I say it here, is a lucky thing for France. I will be the president of a mixed (métissée) France that sees itself as such..."

She spoke of the "execrable" February 2005 law that permits teachers to teach the positive role of colonialism (a law that has been repealed by presidential decree):

"This revision of history was unacceptable...(Colonialism) was a system of spoliation, domination and humiliation..." compared to liberty, equality, fraternity and "respect for identity".

Note: I was unaware that the February 2005 law had been repealed.

Note: Has she not contradicted herself? She wants a France that is "mixed" and she advocates "respect for identity". How are the French to maintain their identity if they mix in with other races. The word "métissé" usually refers to mixed-blood, not to different races living side by side.

Note: After Martinique she went on to Guadeloupe where she spoke several sentences in Creole, and said, among other things, that her worst enemy was mediocrity.