PARIS—Mud is flying in France during an election campaign as a party is accused of foul play. Members of the ruling party in France, Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), made accusations against a popular Socialist Party candidate running in a local election in the Ile-de-France region.
The accusations that local Socialist candidate Ali Soumare is a “multiple repeat offender,” with a record of five criminal convictions, initially met with a favorable reaction from the public.
Francis Delattre, the mayor of Franconville, made the accusation against Soumare, who is Muslim and of African descent, less than three weeks before the election.
During the weekend of Feb. 20 the issue gave the UMP such a significant boost, that Soumare’s candidacy was in doubt.
However, things turned sour for the UMP when the Socialist Party fired back, stating that the accusations were a dirty political trick to eliminate the opposition candidate.
Public opinion made a complete shift against the UMP when a local judge on Feb. 23 revealed that in at least one instance, Soumare had been wrongfully accused.
On Feb. 24 Higher Education Minister Valerie Pecresse—who heads the UMP campaign effort in Ile de France—condemned the accusations made against Soumare in a press release.
Mayor Delattre immediately made public apologies about the mistake, but allowed his lawyers to comment that the inaccuracy was limited to only one case in the five offenses reported.
As reported by the Christian Science Monitor, Soumare has admitted to only one the five accusations. Soumare, 29, had previously acknowledged that he was convicted of theft and minor assault when he was 19, saying that he had made a mistake when he was young.
According to the Christian Science Monitor report, the information about the other arrests referred to are inconclusive and possibly obtained illegally.
UMP spokesperson Frederic Lefebvre said during a France Info Radio interview that he hoped political candidates would be more transparent about their pasts.
“I still think that a condemned law offender is not a good example to show, and it is even ruining the efforts to promote diversity,” he said “No other political party had dared before to promote someone condemned for severe offenses.”
Socialist Party National Secretary Martine Aubry said on France 3 television that, “It never brings anything good to the Republic or to the French to see this kind of dirty libel.” Several of her colleagues had even stronger words.
Inside the UMP and the French government itself, voices of dissent have been heard. From the beginning, State Secretary Chantal Jouanno distanced herself from the attacks. Fadela Amara, the minister responsible for Urban Affairs, said on TV5 that “this political campaign is, let’s say, fishy. This does not really honor political life.”
During the same interview, she said, “One thing is for sure, it is that the fact he [Soumare] is an Afro, which has had some role, and this does not smell good.”
Eric Raoult, an UMP Parliament member in the Ile de France region, accused Valerie Pecresse of unprofessionally handling the campaigns in her region. “There is no real leader, and we have already lost Ile-de-France,” accused an angry Raoult.
The Socialist Party, the main opposition party in France, currently controls 22 of the 24 French regions, and aims to win all of them in upcoming elections. Local UMP leaders are now accused of planning their attacks on Soumare well in advance. “We have plans on him and will apply when the time comes” said Axel Poniatowski, a UMP leader in December, according to RTL Radio.
In 2007, the French newspaper Le Monde referred to Soumare as a rising star after he mediated tensions between police and residents during a riot in 2007 that was triggered when a police car killed two French Arab and African children. Four police were wounded by gunfire once the riot broke out.
The elections were expected to give control to the Socialist Party over most regional elected offices in Ile-de-France.
Friends Read Free