Just a quick note of protest against Dominique de Villepin's absurd decision to unearth an old French law that has, until now, only ever applied to French colonial territories, thus upping the obviously considerable stakes of the violence, to tell all near and far that the French government may well declare a state of emergency, I have yet to see a car burning, though I have felt some tension, it's been a glorious fall day, and I have the beginnings of a cold.
my first thought when the "état d'urgence" was announced was that it was probably Chirac himself who had used it in Nouvelle Calédonie a few years ago (the only other time it was used since the guerre d'Algérie). I have to confess though that I was wrong, and that it was François Mitterand and his socialist government who had done it. Ironically though, I found out that a long list of right-wing MPs and senators, Chirac being the first on the list, had protested and asked the Conseil Constitutionnel whether the law was against the constitution. The état d'urgence had been declared constitutional by that institution. I guess Chirac had not forgotten...
Posted by: TitideParis | November 09, 2005 at 02:36 PM