France's Sarkozy in new storm over immigration

Jon Boyle:

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy faced charges of xenophobia on Monday over his weekend comments on immigrants, thrusting the sensitive issue to the fore as rivals manoeuvre ahead of 2007 presidential polls.

Sarkozy, who presents a tough new immigration bill to parliament on May 2, told new members of his Union for a Popular Movement he was sick of having to apologise for being French and said a small minority could not dictate French laws or customs.

"If it bothers some people being in France, they shouldn't worry about leaving a country they don't like," Sarkozy said at the weekend, the sort of utterance his enemies say sparked weeks of riots in poor French suburbs last October and November.

Sarkozy ally Christian Estrosi, the urban planning minister, defended the comments: "When people are against the place of women in society, against secularism, do we have to say to those people 'stay here'? Or .... (say that) everyone has to respect (French traditions)," he said on LCI television.

But left-wing opponents said Sarkozy, a leading contender in the elections, was parroting views that have won the far right fresh support from voters disillusioned with the conservative government's climbdown over the disputed First Job Contract (CPE) earlier this month.

"Why this xenophobic excess?" asked Jack Lang, a veteran Socialist politician and potential election rival of Sarkozy. "When one wants to rise to the highest offices of the state, one cannot go cruising (for votes) on the National Front's territory," he said.

In April 2002, far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen came second in the first round of the presidential election, beating the Socialist candidate and winning a place in the run-off ballot he eventually lost to incumbent Jacques Chirac.

His feat traumatised the political class, whose fears deepened last year when French voters rejected the EU constitution, the first time Le Pen's views had prevailed in a national plebiscite. The French rejection of the charter was blamed in part on public disquiet over immigration.

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