FRANCE INTRODUCES EMERGENCY LAWS

November 8, 2005 (Guardian) - Mr de Villepin said curfews would be imposed under a 1955 law that allows the declaration of a state of emergency in part, or all, of France. The law was passed to curb unrest in Algeria during the war that led to its independence from France.

CHIRAC UNDER FIRE FOR ABDICATING ROLE DURING CRISIS

PARIS November 8, 2005 (AFP) - After nearly two weeks of rioting in France's poor suburbs, president Jacques Chirac was under growing fire Tuesday for taking what appears to be a back seat role to defuse one of the country's biggest crises since World War II.

Since the violence erupted on October 27, Chirac has made only one public appearance -- on Sunday when he issued a short statement before the cameras calling for the "reestablishment of security and order."

His views have on two other occasions been relayed by the government spokesman -- the latest on Tuesday when he approved the imposition of local states of emergency at the weekly cabinet meeting. ...

Criticism came [from] Socialist Party (PS) leader François Hollande saying that Sunday's three-minute appearance on radio and television was too little and too late.

"When the head of state waits ten days to speak to the French, and does it so briefly ... I get the impression that the government has not taken the measure of the crisis," he said. ...

We recall that Jack was vacationing in Canada during the month of August 2003 while 14,800+ French grannies and grampies died from heat and neglect. Not until August 21, weeks into the health crisis, with the death toll reported in the thousands, did he speak on the situation, and did not interrupt his vacation to do so.

According to [the financial daily] Les Echos, Villepin is the new Pompidou [an allusion to Georges Pompidou's negotiating the accords de Grenelle, which peacefully ended the General Strike of May 1968], with this difference: today's prime minister "has no precise claims to satisfy, no identified interlocutor with whom to negotiate, just an enormous republican malaise to sort out."

PFFT (What is this?): Emergency 5 | Slack Jack 4 | Rayonnement français 0