Sarkozy accused of neo-Pétainism
Controversy has been growing in France ever since the Immigration Minister called for a great debate on the issue of national identity. On the 25th of October, Eric Besson – who was already under attack for deporting three Afghans to Kabul via a special charter flight – announced, "We must reaffirm our pride in being French," and sparked yet another outcry in the left-wing press. Leading with the front page headline "A Return to Pétainism," L'Humanité deplores what it sees as an appeal to a concept of national identity "rooted in the ultra-reactionary right."
The Communist daily also expresses dismay at Nicolas Sarkozy's participation in this "regressive" glorification of national identity, which led him to hold forth on "the French people's relationship with the land" – an expression that could easily have featured in the infamous "the land does not lie" speech made by Vichy France leader and Nazi collaborator Maréchal Pétain. However, L'Humanité hopes that these latest excesses will prompt a "salutary clarification of the fundamental ideology of the French Republic."
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