The French-American Foundation Weekly Brief

FRANCE

Ségolène Royal, 2007 candidate for president defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy, announced on Tuesday, November 30, her candidature for the Socialist Party primaries to be held in autumn 2011, the Telegraph reported. The announcement came as a surprise as Royal, party leader Martine Aubry, and International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn had allegedly agreed to a cooperative approach to the bid for 2012 presidential elections, according to 20 Minutes. Strauss-Kahn, whom recent polls have shown as the most popular socialist option, has made no official declaration of whether he will run for president or not, according to Le Monde. In announcing her candidature, Royal suggested Strauss-Kahn as the logical choice for prime minister if she were elected. Though no clear announcement has been made by current President Nicolas Sarkozy, he hinted at a second term at a meeting of UMP lawmakers the same day as Royal’s announcement, AFP reported.

The day before World AIDS Day, on Tuesday, November 30, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand encouraged French people to be tested for HIV, the virus affecting about 144,000 people in France, Le Figaro reported. On Wednesday, December 1, First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy held a press conference to address the AIDS epidemic. Bruni-Sarkozy, whose brother died of AIDS, called for an end to the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS, praised Pope Benedict XVI’s statements last month claiming condom use is acceptable to prevent the spread of disease, and launched ”Born AIDS Free” – the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria’s campaign to eradicate mother-child transmission of HIV by 2015.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to begin a four-day visit to India on Saturday, November 4, Reuters reported. On his agenda, Sarkozy hopes to boost greater business cooperation between the two nations and seeks India’s support forin France’s goals to assume the for their presidency of the G20, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sarkozy’s visit also coincides with ongoing negotiations between India and French nuclear giant Areva, who received environmental clearance on Sunday, November 28, for the construction of a nuclear power plant outside Mumbai, according to Expatica. Also included in the trip are potential military contracts and a visit to the India Space Research Organization, with which France has multiple joint endeavors.

On Monday, November 29, Libération broke on Monday, November 29, an ongoing dispute between a 71-year-old handyman, Pierre Le Guennec, who revealed 271 works credited to Pablo Picasso, and the son of the late painter, Claude Ruiz-Picasso, who accused Le Guennec of theft after his wife and he brought the works to Paris for authentication, according to the Seattle Times. The trove of previously unknown works, with an estimated value of nearly 60 million Euros, dates from 1900 to 1932, known as one of Picasso’s most creative periods, according to the AP. The works are being held by a state organization charged with combating the trafficking of cultural goods while legal proceedings explore how Le Guennec, who claims to have been gifted the works while working on one of Picasso’s estates in Southern France, came across the sizeable collection, according to Le Point.

Jacques Belle, president of the Consulting Commission on National Defense Secrecy, said on Wednesday, December 1, that a partial declassification of confidential documents pertaining to the ongoing “Affaire Karachi” – explained by Le Monde and L’Express – deserved consideration despite refusal for complete release of the documents, according to AFP. The affair, currently under investigation by leading investigative magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke, has brought multiple allegations of fraud against several prominent French politicians, including President Nicolas Sarkozy. Among a number of legal bribes issued in the sale of three submarines to Pakistan in 1994, then Finance Minister Sarkozy allegedly funneled 2 million Euros back to France to finance the failed presidential candidacy of his mentor, Edouard Balladur. Le Monde reported that some documents had already been released in an investigation of a 2002 bombing, in which 11 French were among the 15 killed, which was believed to be retaliation for unpaid kickbacks. On November 18, the families of victims of that bombing pled for Sarkozy, who in 1994 had expressed reticence toward the sale of submarines to Pakistan, to testify in the current investigation, according to the Guardian.

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Jean Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party, was acquitted of charges of “inciting racial hatred” brought by the group SOS racism, the Washington Post reported. The Paris court found that Le Pen was not responsible for a series of campaign posters in question, which featured a woman in an Islamic veil and read “No to Islamism.”

Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire announced on Wednesday, December 1, that French farmers will receive an additional 4 billion Euros in aid from the European Political Agricultural Community, Le Monde reported.