EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN - Institute of Race Relations

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larised, was aborted when 60 anti-racists and members of theRevolutionary Communist League occupied the runway atStrasbourg airport. But opponents of his deportation were outwittedwhen he was arrested at a roadblock near Naples andquickly deported. Relatives in Turkey believe that he is in anIstanbul prison awaiting trial before a state security court.Ironically, the birth certificate he had been waiting for since thespring, in order to get married, arrived the day after he wasdeported. (Libération 22.10.98)Police and criminal justiceVictim of miscarriage of justice freedThe Moroccan gardener, Ommar Raddad, has been granted aconditional release from an 18-year prison sentence for murder.Since his imprisonment seven years ago, there have been repeatedcalls for his release on the grounds that he is a victim of amiscarriage of justice and his conviction reopened the debateabout the role of the criminal courts, the decisions of which arenot open to appeal.As we reported in bulletin no. 8, Ghislaine Marchal, thewealthy widow of an industrialist, was murdered at her Rivierahome. Raddad was convicted solely on the basis of an ungrammaticalmessage scrawled in blood beside the dead woman’sbody: ‘Omar killed me’. A doctor called as an expert witness atthe trial told the court that the murdered woman would havebeen so incapacitated by her wounds that she could not possiblyhave scrawled the message. When the gardener was convicted,the verdict was vigorously contested by the Union of Judgesand the Union of Lawyers which denounced the trial as a farce.There was no forensic evidence proving him guilty, and fromthe start he has always protested his innocence. No materialfrom the victim was found under his fingernails, there was noblood on his clothes and a very short period of time – about 40minutes – during which he could have committed the crime.(Libération 3.9.98, IRR bulletin no. 8, May 1994)Police officer who shot dead North Africanyouth in 1991 still not prosecutedThe lawyer for the family of a 23-year-old North African youth,shot dead by the police in June 1991 has threatened to protestto the European Court of Human Rights over the long delay inprosecuting Pascal Hiblot, the police officer who fired the fatalshot. The investigating prosecutor has promised that action onthe case will be taken very soon. Youssef Khaif, alongside otheryouths, stole a car in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) and went for ajoy ride. The police pursuit ended tragically when the driver ofthe car run over a police officer, fatally injuring him. Khaif wasthen shot in the neck by the police officer who claimed selfdefence.But a reconstruction confirmed that the shots werefired while the car was moving away from the police.Self-defence claims police officerInitially, Pascal Hiblot was charged with ‘violence unintentionallyleading to death’ but this was changed to ‘firing fatal shots’after a change in the penal code and Hiblot was released pendingtrial. Commentators expect that even if the case comes totrial, Hiblot will receive a light sentence as the penal code statesthat ‘killing and injuries are excusable when they have been provokedby shots or other serious violence towards the peopleresponsible’. After the shooting, Hiblet maintained that he wasterrified when he saw the bleeding body of his colleague andthat he was convinced that the youth were out to ‘kill the cops’,10IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999citing the rumour of all out war between police and local youthfollowing another police killing. Aissa Ihich also died in 1991after being beaten up in a local police station and refused treatmentfor asthma. The police officers involved were subsequentlycharged but have still not come to trial. (Libération 6.7.98)Racism and fascismMulticulturalism, the World Cup and thediscourse on national preferenceFrance’s victory in the World Cup with no less than eight playersdescended from immigrants, was taken as proof that antiimmigrantsentiments are out of fashion and that France is setto enter a new era. Politicians, intellectuals, feminists warmed tothe theme and even the FN was forced to fine-tune its xenophobicmessage. Few voices have dared to dissent from thedominant view and suggest that the euphoria won’t last. Presscommentators went on to claim that the French football victorywill lead to a decline in the popularity of the extreme Right,pointing to the changed attitude in the right-wing daily newspaperLe Figaro, the letters page of which is usually dominatedby support for national preference. Following the World Cupvictory, it carried an editorial recognising the contribution ofimmigrants who had ‘progressively become French through thealchemy of immigration’.Race and the 2002 presidential electionPresident Chirac paid tribute to France’s ‘tricolour and multicolour’triumph, urging the Right to drop its support for theFN’s discriminatory policy of national preference. ‘This victoryshows solidarity and cohesion’ he said. ‘It shows that France hasa soul or is searching for one.’ He added that ‘distrust of immigrantsruns contrary to France’s humanist, democratic andRepublican traditions’.According to the Observer, ‘Chirac used the victory… toregain control of the Right and prepare the way for his re-electionin 2002’. For race is becoming the central issue which,alongside Europe, divided the various factions and presidentialcontenders of the Right one from another. There are now abouta dozen groups within the right-wing, the leaders of which arejockeying for a possible presidential nomination. CharlesPasqua has set up an anti-European movement in opposition tothe pro-Europe movement of the former premier, EdouardBalladur. Pasqua, with his statement following the World Cupin support of immigrants, has positioned himself to the Left ofPasqua on race and immigration; while Balladur, who supportsthe call for national preference, is to the Right.FN claims a ‘triumph for patriotism’The FN has been forced into a speedy retreat, dropping its callfor a ban on players of foreign extraction and describing the victoryas a triumph for patriotism. Le Pen even claimed credit forthe World Cup victory, claiming that he had always recognisedthat the French team could be comprised of different races andreligions as long as the players loved their country. Le Penclaimed that the midfielder Zinedine Zidane, the son of a harkiwho came to France after fighting on the French side againstindependence, was a product of l’Algérie française’.For years, the FN has attacked non-French players in thenational side arguing that the French team was ‘artificial’because of the high proportion of foreign players. Two years agoLe Pen rebuked the national side for its inability to sing theMarseillaise; he is now glad that they have now learnt to sing thesong properly. Prior to the tournament, the FN attempted to
pressurise the coach, Aimé Jacquet, into dropping recent immigrants.(Guardian 14, 15.7,19.9.98 Observer 19.7.98)The FN in the European ParliamentLe Pen’s parliamentary immunity liftedMembers of the European parliament have voted overwhelminglyto remove Le Pen’s immunity from prosecution followinga request from the public prosecutor in Munich that he standtrial for breaching the German criminal code by trivialising theHolocaust. This is one of the first cases where a member of onestate has had a request for his immunity to be lifted by anothermember state. (Press release European parliamentary Labour party5.10.98, Guardian 7.10.98)Grandson of de Gaulle could stand for FN inEuropean parliamentary electionsThe FN has agreed to open up its party slate for the 1999European parliamentary elections to politicians outside themovement. Charles de Gaulle, the 50-year-old grandson ofGeneral de Gaulle, has indicated that he is prepared to standsecond on the list to Le Pen, or his wife should the appeal courtuphold Le Pen’s disqualification.Charles de Gaulle has been an MEP since 1994 for the anti-Maastricht Movement for France, which appeals to reactionaryCatholics and anti-Republicans and is led by the millionairearistocrat Phillipe de Villier. According to friends, Charles deGaulle believes that the FN is best placed to pursue many of thenationalistic aims of his grandfather. De Gaulle was one of thefew MEPs who refused to vote to lift Le Pen’s European parliamentaryimmunity against prosecution in Germany. (Guardian23.10.98)Parliamentary elections and the FNToulon by-election: FN fails to regain national seatThe FN has failed in its attempt to regain its national assemblyseat in Toulon. In the first round of the election, FN candidateCendrine Le Chevallier polled 40 cent of the vote, to theSocialist candidate’s 37 per cent. While local centre-Right parties,with the exception of Alliance candidate Marc Bayle,refused to advocate opposition to the FN in the second-round,Le Chevallier lost by more than 700 votes. Nearly half the electorateabstained.This was the sixth election in Toulon for the NationalAssembly in 18 months. The Socialist candidate had won theprevious election but the vote was overturned when a TV broadcaston polling day was judged to have amounted to ‘electoralpropaganda’. (Guardian 26, 28.9.98)Poor results for FN in two by-electionsThere was a poor electoral turn-out for by-elections in Aubagne(Bouches-du-Rhône) and Dunkerque (North). In both constituencies,as well as Toulon, around 60 per cent of the electorateabstained. (Le Figaro 21.9.98)The FN’s assault on culture in the regionalassembliesThe FN is exercising an effective veto over the culture budgetsof regional assemblies elected with its support, refusing to backfunding for any organisation challenging the FN’s views on promotingart forms deemed subversive or multicultural. TheEuropean Centre for Research and Action on Racism andAntisemitism concludes in its 1998 annual report that ‘For the11IRR EUROPEAN RACE BULLETIN • NO 29 • MARCH 1999‘For the first time, the FN is not only at the heartof a political and ideological controversy, butalso the cause of a crisis for regionalinstitutions.’European Centre for Research and Action onRacism and Antisemitismfirst time, the FN is not only at the heart of a political and ideologicalcontroversy, but also the cause of a crisis for regionalinstitutions.’ According to Bruno Mégret, the FN ‘does notintend to support artists who are politically engaged in any wayand who, worst of all, ask for grants from the very people towhom they are politically opposed’.Languedoc-RoussillonIn Languedoc-Roussillon, the FN leader, Alain Jamet hasrefused to support further public funding applications from theregional philharmonic orchestra, the prize winning Théâtre desTreize-Vents (TTV), the National Centre for Choreography, orthe Montpellier Dance Festival, all of whose directors have criticisedFN policies. Alain Jamet says the FN would not be ‘dictatedto by a bunch of cultural trendies who hold out their bowland then spit into the soup with impunity’. Jean-Claude Fall,the director of TTV who is being sued by FN councillors forcomparing the FN’s cultural policies to those of the Nazis said:‘this is censorship of the most blatantly political kind’.Rhône-AlpesArtists and cultural institutions in the Rhône-Alpes region haveformed a new movement, ‘Vigilance, Art, Cultures, Contres lesIdées Noires’ (VACCIN).In the first few months of the Millon administration, severalgroups have had funding withdrawn. Funding for the‘Compagnie Image Aigue’ was withdrawn on the specificinstructions of FN Cultural Commission member Pierre Vialwho announced that ‘we wanted to make an example of thiscompany which presents itself as a model concerning local politicsand proposes the promotion of a multicultural society’. Agrant to the Lyon Biennial dance festival which was to havestaged an event devoted to the Mediterranean was also withdrawnbecause, according to Vial, ‘The theme of the Biennial ispernicious since it aims… to pull France closer to the South.’According to Guy Darmet, director of the Maison de la Dancede Lyon and director of the Biennial dance, the parade is beingtargeted ‘because it represents a huge and popular multiculturalevent open to the youth and to all areas of Lyon and beyond’.The withdrawal of funding for the Biennial dance festivalhas also highlighted a bizarre situation which has emerged in theRhône-Alpes owing to the Socialist and Green policy of opposingeverything the Millon administration advocates because ofits collusion with the FN. Thus, on one occasion, the Socialistsand Greens actually found themselves voting with the FN inopposition to a Biennial funding application because it was presentedto the assembly for approval by the Millon administration.Guy Darmet, concludes that ‘it is scandalous that cultureis taken hostage by politicians.’ While he understands theSocialist position and does not confuse their votes with those ofthe FN, he is ‘worried by this deadlock situation of oppositionwhich highlights well the problems of the regional assemblieswhere there is… no representation of culture’.Pressure from cultural activistsThe new cultural organisation VACCIN has condemned the
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Page 36 and 37: On 16 August, Corneliu Vadim Tudor,
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