[Strengthandhonour]

FRANCE IMMIGRANT VOWED TO BLOCK SARKOZY FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT
FRANCE’S IMMIGRANT communities have vowed to block the right wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy from becoming President.
Sarkozy is very unpopular among many poor blacks and Muslims in France's troubled suburbs and housing projects, after he labeled them as ‘scum’ days before riots broke out in the suburb Clichy-sous-Bois.
Sarkozy and his left wing competitor, Segolene Royal, both made it through the first round of voting, which saw an extraordinary 85 per cent voter turnout. The second round will be decided on 6 May.
Sarkozy captured 31 per cent of the votes despite record growth in the immigrant suburbs to block him. In Seine-Saint-Denis, the region where Clichy-sous-Bois is located, voter registration was up by 8.5 per cent, more than twice the average nationwide increase.
"If Sarkozy wins there will certainly be riots here in Clichy and all over France," warned Moroccan-born first-time voter Mohammed Saidi, 43, an electrician and father of four. Another first-time voter, 20-year-old Fatma Celik, said that if Sarkozy were elected, she was sure "people are going to go crazy here".
After the riots, suburban neighbourhoods were targeted by a massive voter registration campaign as a way to address the disenfranchisement of young minorities who feel France has never accepted them.
The riots were sparked by the accidental electrocution of youths who hid from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, and spread to suburbs throughout France, exacerbated by frustrations over high unemployment and racial discrimination.
Sarkozy has become infamous for his tough police tactics, uncompromising language and hardline stance on immigrants. And he has refused to back down from his “scum" comment.
"I intend to continue to call a hoodlum a hoodlum and scum, scum,'' he said.
"It's not a word that's insulting; it's the behaviour of hoodlums that's insulting."
Published: 01 May 2007


source: FRANCE IMMIGRANT VOWED TO BLOCK SARKOZY FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT