-Caveat Lector-
>From the Independent (UK)
> Mother tongue divides France
>
> By John Lichfield in Paris
>
>
>
> Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister, disagrees with Jacques Chirac, the President,
> who also disagrees with himself, as only he can.
>
> Mr Jospin simultaneously disagrees with his long-time friend, the Interior
> Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevenement, who is admittedly a rather disagreeable man.
> The Communists and Greens agree with the right-wing liberals but disagree with
> the populist wing of the Socialists who agree with the far-right National Front.
>
>
> France has been plunged into a Babel-like row - constitutional, political and
> personal - which crosses all the traditional left-right divisions. The subject
> is language. Should France give formal recognition for the first time to its
> rich heritage of regional and minority languages? Should the state officially
> foster Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Languedoc, Provencal and
> even Creole, several varieties of which are spoken by two million people in
> French overseas territories and departements?
>
> Opponents - on both right and left - say such a development would unravel more
> than 200 years of single-minded determination by the French state to make the
> republic homogeneous and indivisible. It would be a first step towards making
> France into a loosely connected collection of provinces, like Tony Blair's
> United Kingdom, or, worse still, Belgium. Mr Chevenement said it would Balkanise
> France.
>
> Supporters of the idea - on both left and right - say it would be a long-overdue
> step towards more inclusive French state, capable of cherishing its ethnic and
> linguistic heritage. In any case, it would commit France to doing little more
> than it is already doing: in Brittany, you can learn Breton at school; in
> Provence, the road signs are in both French and Provencal.
>
> The dispute is significant - and bad-tempered - because it is happening on the
> only truly active fault-line in French politics. On one side, there are the
> sovereigntists, republican purists, who fear that the centralising French state,
> and France itself, is menaced by the European Union, by globalism, by American
> hegemony and now (from within) by people who stubbornly insist on speaking
> something other than French.
>
> They include Mr Chevenement's Citizen's Movement, an anti-European,
> anti-American Socialist sect. This populist party has little popular support but
> forms a key component in the Jospin coalition.
>
> The sovereigntists also include a breakaway party of dissident Gaullists and
> other Eurosceptic right-wingers, launched successfully at the European elections
> last month by the former Gaullist interior minister, Charles Pasqua.
>
> On the other side are Mr Jospin's Socialists, the Greens and most of the rest of
> the centre-right. But where sits President Chirac? Uncomfortably, and absurdly,
> on the fence. The Gaullist President started the whole process rolling by
> promising Breton politicians in 1996 that France would sign the European Charter
> of Regional and Minority Languages, adopted in 1992 by the Council of Europe.
> The idea was pursued by Mr Chirac's own Gaullist prime minister, Alain Juppe,
> and then by his successor, Mr Jospin.
>
> Last month, France, with Mr Chirac's blessing, signed up to 39 of the 94
> articles of the charter. Paris committed itself to allowing the teaching of
> regional languages at school and university, encouraging their cultural
> development and the translation of official texts and documents. It was made
> clear that French would remain the official and dominant language of the
> republic, from Calais to the Pacific Ocean.
>
> Two weeks ago France's constitutional council ruled that even this limited
> charter breached the first two articles of the French constitution, those
> stating that the the French people is "indivisible" and that the "language of
> the republic is French". Mr Jospin proposed a minor constitutional amendment to
> allow the charter to be ratified; Mr Chirac refused.
>
> In the intervening period, the breakaway, sovereigntist Gaullist party defeated
> his own party in the European elections. Mr Chirac, untroubled by consistency as
> ever decided to play a nationalist and republican card. However, the battle goes
> on. Both centre-right and Socialist deputies intend to launch pro-regional
> language, constitutional amendments in the national assembly.
A<>E<>R
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