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| French politicians backpedal on Polansky as popular opinion asserts itself |
| 2009-09-30 |
| After two days of widespread expressions of support for jailed filmmaker Roman Polanski, from European political leaders as well as leading cultural figures there and in the United States, the mood was shifting among French politicians Tuesday about whether the government should have rushed to rally around the Oscar-winning director. Marc Laffineur, the vice-president of the French assembly and a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling center-right party, the UMP, took issue with the French culture and foreign minister's remarks supporting Mr. Polanski, saying "the charge of raping a child 13 years old is not something trivial, whoever the suspect is." Within the Green party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit -- a French deputy in the European parliament whose popularity is rising -- also criticized Sarkozy administration officials for leaping too quickly to Mr. Polanski's side despite the serious nature of his crime. On the extreme right, the father and daughter politicians Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen also attacked the ministers, saying they were supporting "a criminal pedophile in the name of the rights of the political-artistic class."... Marie-Louise Fort, a French lawmaker in the Assembly who has sponsored anti-incest legislation, said in an interview that she was shocked that Mr. Polanski was attracting support from the political and artistic elite. "I don't believe that public opinion is spontaneously supporting Mr. Polanski at all," she said. "I believe that there is a distinction between the mediagenic class of artists and ordinary citizens that have a vision that is more simple." The mood was even more hostile in blogs and e-mails to newspapers and news magazines. Of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by the French daily Le Figaro, more than 70 percent said Mr. Polanski, 76, should face justice. And in the magazine Le Point, more than 400 letter writers were almost universal in their disdain for Mr. Polanski. That contempt was not only directed at Mr. Polanski, but at the French class of celebrities -- nicknamed Les People -- who are part of Mr. Polanski's rarefied Parisian world. Letter writers to Le Point scorned Les People as the "crypto-intelligentsia of our country" who deliver "eloquent phrases that defy common sense."... |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #10 "I don't uh know all the uh facts in this case but it is clear that the uh Swiss police acted stupidly under the circumstances." |
| Posted by: Skunky Glins**** 2009-09-30 21:54 |
| #9 Just when I have lost all hope in the french they surprise me. Vive La France! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2009-09-30 19:06 |
| #8 ok, it's in that bit... Anyway, french public is not child-ab_users friendly, IIRC, when polls on death penalty still were made (they no longer are, AFAIK), about 70% supported death penalty, and child-abuse was on the top of the offenses. Actually, there's more than a bit of hysteria, it's become a somewhat common tactics in divor++ces, stuff like that. Sad part is, the legal system seems both unable to prevent actual child abuse (from family inc__est, to rapes of sometimes very yo_ung gi_rls by Diverse Youths™), and prone to heavy-handness in some very disturbing cases... Perfect example would be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outreau_trial So, the very same Enlightened Elites who now are defending polanski were then driving the nails into the coffins of the Outreau accusees. Those were lower working class people, proles, so they weren't worthy. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-09-30 17:46 |
| #7 Hum, darn words-filter..... Ps : daniel cohn-bandit was one of the leading figures of the 1968 "student revolution" in France, he's as left as you can imagine, and, of course, he's now a green, and actually led the green party to a very sizeable good score at the last european elections, much to the chagrin of rightwing loons like me. Note his pedophilia experience was put forth by an adversary during a debate (really don't like this guy, who IS the next french president incidentally - the BVM told him so, two different high-ranking french politicians reported he had told them that vision - too), but this badly backfired on him, as this is not well-known and his accuser was handled pretty roughly by the press. And on teevee, this looked like an erratic outburts, and ironically gave "dany the red" some sympathy. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-09-30 17:43 |
| #6 Yeah, I was going to comment on the daniel cohn-bandit hypocrisy. But, remember, when he wrote that bit, pedophilia was hip! As one ex soc99alist french minister of culture (jack lang, himself a not-so-closeted homosexula, even though he's married with a daughter, herself an hysterical moonbat green politician) once famously wrote in the early 80's, "pedophilia is the last unchartered copntinent of human love, than 21st century pionneers will have to explore"... libération, the leading liberal-limousine daily, was famously very pedophilia-friendly in the 70's and early 80's, hosting petitions from various leftist intellectuals to protest again child abusers'prison sentenceing, or having a self-acknowledged pedophile as a columnist. Anyway, this whole polanski is a sordid mess, very unpleasant... anyway everybody does his kabuki dance, as expected, wingnuts want his head and blame the joooooooos (many of his defenders are jews), our Enlightened Elites blame AmeriKKKa (note the line of the current minster of culture, the nephew of the late soc66alist president, talking about the "America we love, and the scary America, which has now shown its face again"... not that as many french high-society homosexual, he's very fond of north or sub-sahara africa to go to vacations, and a few years ago, he wrote a book that made some scandal because he vilified the birthrate of black africans as a cause of the contient misery - apparently, his Racism™ was less socially acceptable than his acknowledgement of spending "quality time" with young black and arab boys). Oh, well, anyway, polansli hasn't made a good movie since... Pirates or Frantic? Good movie maker... still, very funny to wonder... would the Chattering Class go to his rescue, should have he been, say, a mechanician? A factory worker??? No, obviously. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-09-30 17:22 |
| #5 France could have turned him over any time they wanted to. I suspect the French citizens were unaware of the actual crimes until now. If they'd forced him join the Foreign Legion and risk/work his butt off that might be another matter but they let him prosper because it was a thumb in the eye of America and I'm happy to see the French citizens apply a little fire to a few political feet. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2009-09-30 17:16 |
| #4 Within the Green party, Daniel Cohn-Bendit... I can't decide whether Cohn-Bendit is taking a courageous stand or being a hypocrite:
He and the kids were exploring "a collective discourse of a new sexual morality yet to be defined". Yeah, yeah, it's Wikipedia, but I've read that elsewhere. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2009-09-30 15:47 |
| #3 The backpedaling says even more about them than their original stance. |
| Posted by: Woozle Uneter9007 2009-09-30 13:55 |
| #2 Speaking of The 0ne, has he weighed in on this issue yet? Wait, let me guess: "That's not the Roman Polanski I knew..." |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2009-09-30 13:29 |
| #1 "eloquent phrases that defy common sense."... -i.e. any Obama speech |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2009-09-30 12:35 |