No criticism about France allowed

In France.

Which reminded me of an earlier exchange with some of my "fellow" citizens.

Chauvinism is one thing, but intolerance of difference is another. Why should any of this matter?

Here are two reasons: the first is that during the Nazi occupation of France, well over 70,000 Jews living in the country, among which some 11,000 were children, were systematically rounded up and deported to concentration camps — with the active collaboration of the French government and thanks, in part, to ordinary French citizens. Whether due to fearful compliance or active denunciation of their fellow citizens, the results speak for themselves.

Today, France is at the European vanguard of anti-Semitism, although no one cares to talk about it very much. The latest incident occurred on April 26: a 22-year-old Jewish woman in Marseille wearing a Hebrew chai pendant was attacked by two men who accused her of wearing "the sign of the devil." They used a knife to cut off her shirt, used a felt tip pen to draw a swastika between her breasts, cut off a patch of her hair, threw her to the ground, and struck her several times with a motorcycle helmet.

The second reason that French intolerance matters is that France is just a few days away from an epochal presidential election. A smear campaign against the leading contender, the reform-minded Nicolas Sarkozy, is now in full swing. It's one thing to be critical of a candidate's policies, but the attempts by some on the Left to demonize Mr. Sarkozy are uniquely, even disturbingly, French. It all began when, as the minister of Interior, he made a politically incorrect speech in which he used the word "scum" to describe some of the residents of a poor Parisian suburb. Riots broke out afterward. Add to that a photo taken of Mr. Sarkozy with President Bush and his recurrent portrayal as the devil incarnate was sealed.

Smear campaigns can and do happen anywhere, and no one said politics was prettier on the other side of the Atlantic. But in France they can contain a particular venom.

Free speech anyone? Check the entire article.