France simmers after national anthem soccer ‘outrage’

PARIS – Critics yesterday accused the French government of overreacting after immigrant youths booed the national anthem at a football match against Tunisia, as the country simmered with outrage over the incident.

“Indignation!”, “An affair of state!” splashed newspaper front pages, while a poll in Le Parisien showed 80 per cent of people were “shocked” to see the Paris Stade de France erupt into jeers at Tuesday’s France-Tunisia game. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government issued a stark warning to football fans on Wednesday, saying it would call off future games if the “Marseillaise” is jeered again, amid a chorus of outrage from the political establishment.But critics dismissed the idea as unworkable and dangerous.”At what point do you stop the match? After 1 000 jeers, 5 000, 10 000?” asked opposition Socialist deputy Elisabeth Guigou, while a spokesman for Europe’s football governing body UEFA, William Gaillard, called it unrealistic.”If you stop a game after the national anthem is jeered, there is no doubt there will be violence in the stadium and across the area,” warned the pro-government le Figaro newspaper.Three years after the riots in France’s poor city suburbs, the case revived concerns that many second- and third-generation immigrants from north Africa still feel excluded from mainstream society.Similar incidents marred French games against Algeria in 2001 and Morocco in 2007, when large chunks of the stadium jeered the “Marseillaise.””Yeah, I whistled,” 15-year-old Eldeterr – the rapper’s stage name – was quoted as telling the left-wing newspaper Liberation.”And I’ll tell you why: I can’t love a country that doesn’t love us back.”But France’s housing minister Fadela Amara, who is of north African origin, said the behaviour cast “shame on their parents” and the five-million-strong Muslim community, and demanded “exemplary” punishment.”Enough talking about social malaise and the problems with integration.We have to stop finding excuses for them,” she told Le Parisien.Officials have opened a judicial inquiry for “outrage” against the national anthem or flag – in theory an offence punishable by a hefty fine and up to six months in jail under a 2003 law that has never been applied.Liberation said the “overblown indignation of certain ministers…borders on the ridiculous.”Malek Boutih, a senior Socialist official and former head of SOS Racism, also accused politicians of “overplaying” their outrage.Nampa-AFPPresident Nicolas Sarkozy’s government issued a stark warning to football fans on Wednesday, saying it would call off future games if the “Marseillaise” is jeered again, amid a chorus of outrage from the political establishment.But critics dismissed the idea as unworkable and dangerous.”At what point do you stop the match? After 1 000 jeers, 5 000, 10 000?” asked opposition Socialist deputy Elisabeth Guigou, while a spokesman for Europe’s football governing body UEFA, William Gaillard, called it unrealistic.”If you stop a game after the national anthem is jeered, there is no doubt there will be violence in the stadium and across the area,” warned the pro-government le Figaro newspaper.Three years after the riots in France’s poor city suburbs, the case revived concerns that many second- and third-generation immigrants from north Africa still feel excluded from mainstream society.Similar incidents marred French games against Algeria in 2001 and Morocco in 2007, when large chunks of the stadium jeered the “Marseillaise.””Yeah, I whistled,” 15-year-old Eldeterr – the rapper’s stage name – was quoted as telling the left-wing newspaper Liberation.”And I’ll tell you why: I can’t love a country that doesn’t love us back.”But France’s housing minister Fadela Amara, who is of north African origin, said the behaviour cast “shame on their parents” and the five-million-strong Muslim community, and demanded “exemplary” punishment.”Enough talking about social malaise and the problems with integration.We have to stop finding excuses for them,” she told Le Parisien.Officials have opened a judicial inquiry for “outrage” against the national anthem or flag – in theory an offence punishable by a hefty fine and up to six months in jail under a 2003 law that has never been applied.Liberation said the “overblown indignation of certain ministers…borders on the ridiculous.”Malek Boutih, a senior Socialist official and former head of SOS Racism, also accused politicians of “overplaying” their outrage.Nampa-AFP