Sarkozy’s new Ministry
Yesterday, on French public TV, Nicolas Sarkozy, current interior Minister and candidate of the Conservative party UMP in the presidential race, argued in favor of the establishment of a new “Ministry for immigration and national identity”. This would be one of his first decisions as newly elected President.
Such an idea triggered a real debate. One can see it as a way of making sure extreme right voters will give him their votes and deprive their “natural” candidate, Le Pen, of the support he needs : such a new Ministry would indeed be appealing to this constituency. But whatever the calculation behind this may be and probably is, such a proposal, in the French historical context, at a times where integration is still a major issue and should be one of the main concerns of the entire political class, a “Ministry for national identity” sounds really, really odd to say the least.
Who would possibly want to be called “Minister for national identity” by the way?…