Sarkozy holds talks with Le Pen

[Errigal]

Sarkozy holds talks with Le Pen


President Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first French leader to hold talks with far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in more than 30 years.

Mr Sarkozy had pledged to brief French MPs and MEPs such as Mr Le Pen before this week's EU summit in Brussels.
Later he told MPs from his own UMP party he was committed to bold reforms.
He said French voters had approved a break from the ideas of the past, in what correspondents say is a clear warning to unions aiming to oppose him.
The meeting with Mr Le Pen - on the day of his 79th birthday - is part of a consultation process with all the main political parties, which comes as President Sarkozy begins his reform process.
Mr Le Pen described President Sarkozy's move as a "democratic gesture", and said they had exchanged differing views over the future of Europe.
The National Front could not remember when Mr Le Pen was last invited to the Elysee, says the BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris.
It is thought to have been either in the late 1960s or early 1970s, at a time when his political clout was substantially less than it is today, our correspondent adds.
Both Jacques Chirac and his socialist predecessor Francois Mitterrand refused to meet the far-right leader, who formed the National Front 35 years ago.

[...]

Ethnic-minority ministers
In another sign of change with the past, three women of African descent took seats at Wednesday's cabinet meeting.
In a cabinet reshuffle made necessary by parliamentary elections at the weekend, Mr Sarkozy named the Senegalese-born Rama Yade as minister for human rights.
The opposition activist Fadela Amara - who is of Algerian origin - was put in charge of urban affairs.
Ms Amara previously headed an organisation which campaigned against domestic violence in French suburbs, many of which have large immigrant populations.
The French president also confirmed his choice of another North African - Rachida Dati - as minister of justice.

source

[Kernunnos]

Which is the best news?

Le Pen called fr the first time to Elisee or three african women in high level government posts?

It sounds like the act of courtesy to a defeated leader whose army is disbanded.

[Menydh]

It's hard to speculate. Maybe he is trying to defuse ethnic conflict derived from multiculturalism, to pave the road to assimilation/integration.

Given his own ethnic background, he can't be anything else but a convinced and extreme Jacobine.