Wounded Chirac ‘losing grip’ of riot-hit France

Times of London ^ | November 13, 2005 | Matthew Campbell

[ncountylee]

FRANCE yesterday ordered a ban on public meetings likely to provoke disturbances as thousands of police were deployed on the streets of Paris to stop youths turning the tourist centre into a battlefield. The initiative came as speculation mounted over a severely discredited Jacques Chirac’s ability to endure the last 17 months of his presidential term.

Ringleaders of the riots that have shaken France for the past two weeks were suspected of planning to set ablaze the affluent Champs Elysées. Through text and internet messages they were encouraging followers armed with Molotov cocktails to converge on the tree-lined tourist haunt just a stone’s throw from Chirac’s palace.

The violence, which started just over two weeks ago in poor suburbs, has fallen in intensity since the government announced emergency measures on Tuesday. Lyons witnessed the first riot in a major city centre yesterday, but police quickly took control by firing tear gas.

Across the country, 76 cars were torched before midnight, arsonists burnt down an electronics store on the fringes of Toulouse and a school in the southern town of Carpentras. A riot policeman was injured by a metal ball thrown from an apartment block in a Paris suburb.

On Friday night 502 vehicles were set ablaze, the highest total for three days, and 206 people were arrested. In Carpentras, two fire bombs were hurled at a mosque

[Pikachu_Dad]

Doesn't sound even close to being under control.

N.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

got news for ya Mr. Campbell..he ain't "losing it"..he LOST it the second he refused to do anything about the riots..

[Mears]

Losing grip? Good God,the man never had a grip in the first place.

What a strong leader,eh?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

In the interest of international diplomacy; GWB should probably avoid public appearances for the next several days. It would probably be too difficult for him to suppress an undiplomatic big fat sh*t-eating grin, whenever someone mentioned France or Chirac.

[Gordongekko909]

In Carpentras, two fire bombs were hurled at a mosque.

Two possibilities here: A. some Frenchman got fed up and decided to retaliate, or B. some rioter decided to torch the mosque of an imam that told him to stop rioting.

[Joe Miner]

C. Islamofascists did it to inflame others to riot.

[Flavius]

Bottom line is that there are no more subsidies to support the immigration crowds.

Germany had similar conditions causing the war then. In my opinion, it is allways the money that causes people to riot.

So economy first, everything else second, and with this present population segment, the schism between relatively better of and them is of biblical proportions.

[ThreePuttinDude]

C

[Blue Highway]

Waving the white flag of surrender to their own citizens.

[Batrachian]

"On Thursday he made a rare admission of failure by accepting that the government had not acted quickly enough in tackling racial discrimination."

I'm speechless.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Chirac, et tois!! POULET!!

[kromike]

"Sacre Bleu!

Ve must continue to dialogue and prove to these people that ve are no threat to them. Peaceful negotiation is ve only vay!"

[Neo and the PC Matrix]

THERE IS NO "RADICAL ISLAM"

There is only Islam. Some followers act upon the literal meaning of the Jihadist doctrines within the Quran. Islam gives rise to such a high percent of militant religious zealots that we create this category of "extremist" and absolve the source. Worse still, we always add PC mantras like "There extremists hijacked a great faith" or "Islam is peace, they contradict Islam".

It appears that the more violence Muslims do, the more accolades Islam gets. Indeed, whens the last time you even heard any other religion popularly referred to as "great" and "peaceful". Priceless propaganda for any religion to be sure, and Muslims get it for free with every act of violence.

[Libloather]

Wounded Chirac

Nose bleed? Could be the wine...

[cgbg]

Chirac was talking about discrimination against French Jews, right? :-(

[Zechariah11]

It is great to have news so quick about this situation. We are hours ahead of anything from the MSM. It appears as though this rioting was temporarily slowed for a few days and is now reinvigorated. The Islamists have made "half-time adjustments" and are back on the offensive.

[Dark Skies]

The riots are a referendum on socialism. Socialism...and capitulation are dead as are its proponents. Europe isn't wimpy, but socialism is. This is the best thing that has happened on the continent since Charles Martel and Jan Sobieski.

Now, let's hope this country (the U.S.) starts to pronounce the truth about Islam...it doesn't have a heart of "benevolence and love"...sorry Condi.

[Earthdweller]

Also in the Sunday times...

The fire next door November 13, 2005.

"As the worst violence since 1968 engulfed France last week, a growing white backlash against the immigrant rioters has led the far right to believe its time has come, reports Matthew Campbell"

"From his house on a hill in a southern suburb of Paris, Jean-Marie Le Pen likes to look at the city through an old brass telescope he keeps in his study. On recent evenings, the sky in the northeast has had an orange tint, and the leader of the far right National Front party has been able to make out distant pinpricks of burning buildings. Each outbreak of rioting by black and north African youths puts more capital in his political bank, so this silver-haired veteran of French politics was in a jaunty mood as thousands of cars and dozens of businesses and schools were burnt in the worst outbreak of civil unrest France has experienced since the student protests of 1968."

“In the past 15 days,” said Le Pen on Thursday, “our party has acquired several thousand new members. We’ve received thousands of e-mails, faxes and letters from people who say, ‘At last we have understood. You were right, Monsieur Le Pen. They said you were an extremist, but you were a visionary. You predicted everything’.”