I see the British press has caught up to Booker Rising, who has been highlighting this latest struggle for a few weeks now. However, there’s some new info. President Nicolas Sarkozy's short temper has claimed a new victim as his former favorite Rama Yade, France’s independent-minded sports minister, has been frozen out after criticizing the president’s handling of a nepotism scandal. The moderate-conservative politico, who is the government’s most popular member, has repeatedly exasperated President Sarkozy.
When President Sarkozy first appointed Ms. Yade as secretary for human rights, he privately raved that she would one day join Condoleezza Rice, the then American secretary of state, as a black woman on the world stage. A symbol of his rainbow cabinet, breaking with the white elitist past (although Ms. Yade is the daughter of a diplomat and a professor from Senegal), Ms. Yade was always at his side on official trips. Yet her outspokenness about certain Sarkozy policies which she viewed as appeasing African dictators and her refusal last year to run for the European Parliament have irked the president.
Ms. Yade could not have touched a more sensitive nerve regarding the nepotism scandal. The controversy over son Jean Sarkozy, with accusations of running a banana republic, deeply upset President Sarkozy. Jean has since given up seeking the top La Défense job running Europe's largest business district. President Sarkozy hit back at Ms. Yade with a vengeance. He demanded that she abandon her seat in her resident Hauts-de-Seine area west of Paris. The area is also his family fiefdom and where Jean is a councillor. The president wants her to stand as the number two candidate on their center-right UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) list in the northern Val-d’Oise suburb in March 2010 regional elections. Ms. Yade is making no secret of her reluctance to follow the president’s order. According to the pro-Sarkozy newspaper Le Figaro, last week she was “on the verge of a fit of hysteria” at the prospect of switching constituencies. Ms. Yade protested loudly after a party colleague said that her candidacy in Val-d’Oise would be more in line with “local color” — a reference to the high immigrant, non-white population. Ms. Yade complained that running there would be perceived as unacceptable “ethnic parachuting”.
Apparently stung by the public reprimand, Ms. Yade swiftly sought to placate President Sarkozy. “We will see where people think I’m most useful,” she said in a television interview. But she pointedly failed to give in to President Sarkozy’s wish. Privately, she put a brave front on her latest clash with the president, saying: “Don’t worry about me. This is my second job as a minister. I’m 32. The French people don’t look displeased with me. What’s the problem?”
After a string of male politicians publicly criticized the defiant Ms. Yade, the UMP has now sent a female attack dog. Ms. Yade caused another storm late last week for her opposition to abolishing lower taxes on 1/3 of French athletes' income (she argued that it was "dangerous" and would encourage top French athletes to go elsewhere), a policy which her party favors. Nadine Morano, the French Secretary of State for Family and Solidarity, has a message for Ms. Yade (in French). "When one disagrees with the government's policy, it's simple: you close your mouth or you resign."In regard to Ms. Yade's refusal to represent a district where she has no ties or political base, Ms. Morano accused her of not being a team player (in French): "When you make policy, you do so with a collective strategy, especially in regards to regional elections". She added that there must be "the best player where he should be in his place. Rama Yade "adds value anywhere."
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