Word: fillon
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...French officials have made it clear a revision isn't being considered. French Prime Minster Fran?ois Fillon this week said Sebire's plea "touches the limits of intimacy, of what society and the law can say." Likewise, Justice Minister Rachida Dati rejected reform of the existing law, explaining "in no case can death result from a project with which the medical corps is associated." Housing Minister Christine Boutin was even more pointed in rejecting Sebire's request, warning if France "gives the right to kill, we're heading towards a barbarian society...
...politics of the nation were debated and decided by the French people in the spring of 2007," said Prime Minister Fran?ois Fillon after first-round polls closed Sunday, leaving his fellow conservatives in difficulty against leftist rivals in key cities across France. "What is now at stake is the management of our cities, our villages, and our departments ... next Sunday, the values of general interest, of work, of security and solidarity should be expressed in our local democracy...
...Fillon's statement epitomizes the efforts by French conservatives to "de-Sarkocize" municipal elections that offered voters their first chance to express themselves since the President's approval rating went into free fall. Even before Sunday's results, many conservative candidates had sought to disassociate their campaigns from the increasingly unpopular President. Several removed references to Sarkozy and even the name of his Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party from their campaign posters and literature, and many declined presidential offers to stump on their behalf...
...Lowering Sarkozy's profile in the campaign may have helped the right: First-round voting nationally showed leftists beating conservatives by 47.05% to 45.29% - a margin far closer than the tidal wave of protest that had been predicted in opinion polling. Little wonder, then, that Fillon and other conservative leaders applauded the initial outcome as "balanced," and denounced leftist claims that constituted a rebuke of Sarkozy as as "partisan politics that don't correspond to local realities...
...voting: Former Prime Minister Alain Jupp?, for example, won the mayor's job in Bordeaux, just nine months after he suffered a stunning upset for the city's parliamentary seat - a loss that made him ineligible to serve in the national government. Fifteen of the 22 members of Fillon's cabinet of 33 who were on Sunday's municipal ballots either won first-round victories, or were in strong positions for the runoff. Still, the left appears to have done well by trading on the increasing unpopularity of President Sarkozy...