bricehortefeux

Soon after a spat on “aggressive” reporting by a television journalist, French interior minister Brice Hortefeux made news again.

In a video made public by Le Monde, Hortefeux is shown at a late-summer meeting for young conservatives. He’s accompanied by Jean-François Copé, conservative party leader at the national assembly, and surrounded by party activists.

One of the activists, Amine, is of North African descent. It’s a jovial occasion, and everyone’s taking souvenir snapshots of conservative leaders. Amine approaches Copé and Hortefeux for a snapshot.

“Now that’s integration!” exclaims one activist. Someone (Copé?) chimes in, “He speaks Arabic!” Another activist adds, “He eats pork and drinks beer!”

Then Hortefeux adds: “He doesn’t match the prototype at all.” He concludes, “When there’s one, it’s fine. It’s when there are a lot that there are problems.”

There’s an embarrassing precedent. Last January, Hortefeux joked about Fadela Amara, junior minister for urban policy, whom he called “a compatriot”. Then he added, “As it’s not really obvious, I’m pointing it out.” No offense was taken: Hortefeux said he was kidding about his and Amara’s regional origins –both are from Auvergne– not Amara’s North African parentage.

Just days ago, Hortefeux retired a prefect, Paul Girot de Langlade (who coincidentally also is from Auvergne). While at the Orly airport outside Paris, Girot de Langlade became impatient with security checks and reportedly said, “you’d think we were in Africa,” and “there are only blacks here.”

There are three lessons to be learned from the Hortefeux affair:

  1. For the left, racism is a mortal sin. It cannot be excused; it can be pardoned only after contrition. Insofar as the left draws on universal principles, this makes sense, because drawing ethnic lines runs counter to universalism. It also helps explain why the remedy sought is resignation rather than apology. Those on the left may be quick to find racism here because of Hortefeux’s precedents, the Girot de Langlade affair, and the fact that Hortefeux and president Sarkozy are fast friends.
  2. For the right, and maybe for a majority of French people, Hortefeux did nothing wrong. (This also seems to be Amine’s position.) The right believes that national or regional origins carry or are prone to result in certain character traits; talking about an “Italian family” or “German precision” is shorthand not intended to stigmatize. This helps to explain why French prime minister Fillon appeared on national television and said that Hortefeux was the victim of a campaign of denigration. (Interesting etymology, better reserved for another post.) It makes understandable Hortefeux’s unwillingness to say something like: I didn’t mean to give offense, and I apologize to any whom my remarks may have offended. It also helps to explain how references to regional –as opposed to ethnic– origins would explain and excuse talk that otherwise could be thought racist. And it draws a line of sorts between Hortefeux’s comments and Girot de Langlade’s disparagement.
  3. Hortefeux is behind the times, but not for the reasons some have in mind. In recent years, the quality of consumer electronics has improved: devices that capture images, video, and sound are accessible. And the Internet makes it easy to divulge and disseminate recordings. But Hortefeux has not been caught in a “Gotcha!” moment. He appeared at a communications event organized by his party, and he’s a professional politician. He consented to a photo-op. But he thought that he and his party control his image and how it’s used. On this point, the world is changing, becoming “flatter”, more democratic, more popular.