Pave: Merci, mais non merci

Le jour 130 de Sarko

LE PORTRAIT DU PRÉSIDENT REFUSÉ À SANNAT
[THE PRESIDENTIAL PORTRAIT REFUSED AT SANNAT]

Mardi 18 septembre 2007 (Fr3) - Le conseil municipal de Sannat (380 habitants) dans le département de la Creuse vient de lancer une fronde. Par cinq voix contre quatre, la municipalité a décidé de ne pas accrocher le portrait du Président de la République.

Se déclarant "un peu rebelle", le maire (exploitant agricole en retraite) préfère conserver en mairie d'autres portraits : ceux des Présidents Chirac, Mitterrand, et aussi le portrait de Jean Jaurès. Ce dernier n'était pas Président, concède M. Henri Sauthon, mais " il a conservé son prestige de grand démocrate." Le maire de Sannat est un ancien exploitant agricole de 81 ans, classé à gauche.

SARKO TRASHED, MITTERAND STILL HANGS
At Least There Was A Vote

[The town council of Sannat (380 inhabitants) in the department of Creuse has just launched a revolt. By a vote of five to four, the municipality decided not to hang the portrait of the President of the Republic.

Declaring himself "a little rebellious", the mayor (a retired farmer) prefers to preserve other portraits in the town hall: those of Presidents Chirac and Mitterrand, and also a portrait of Jean Jaurès.* The latter was not a president, concedes M. Henri Sauthon, but "he preserved his great democratic prestige." The mayor of Sannat is an 81 year-old former farm owner, classified on the left.]

Sannat is in Creuse, which is in Limousin, pas de surprise, a Socialist stronghold. In the 2e tour of 2007 presidential election the Creusoise vote split 46.74% for Sarkozy and 53.26% for Royal, turning the national vote on its head (53.06%/46.94). But the larger Limousin vote put Ségo a whopping 10 points ahead (45.4%/54.5%).

The BBC reports M. Sauthon claims no political affiliation. The AFP doesn't bother to ask the question. What is missing in all the reports is what was at issue with hanging Sarko's portrait. Just what did the the five no-hang councilers find objectionable in hanging Sarko? Alas, no clue is to be found on the town councilers' page of the site officiel de Sannat. Our guess is at least five out of the nine councilers are sullen lefties. Just a guess.

Fr3 comments:

Juridiquement, le maire de Sannat ne risque pas grand-chose, car aucun texte n'impose le portrait du Président de la République dans les mairies. Néanmoins la coutume républicaine et démocratique veut qu'il en soit ainsi !

[In a legal sense, the mayor of Sannat doesn't risk a great deal, because no text imposes the portrait of the President of the Republic on the town halls. Nevertheless Republican and democratic tradition would have it so!]

Among the left -- the left everywhere (and here and here and here and here) -- bad loser ankle-biting is a popular therapeutic pastime. It brightens the gloomy years of pouting. It diverts from slicing up their own. [Pause.] It gives them something to do. It is in petty slights and name-calling and harrumphing that the left constantly resurrects itself before the voting public.

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* Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (né à Castres le 3 septembre 1859 et mort à Paris le 31 juillet 1914) was an establishing force of French socialism. A pacificist and antimilitarist, he was assassinated by Raoul Villain, a nationalist.

Villain came to trial after WWI and was controversially acquitted in 1919. He himself was assassinated 17 years later.

PFFT (What is this?): Republican and democratic traditions 0 | Partisan pettiness 5 | Rayonnement français 0