Word: quete
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...first time Sarkozy has been accused of trying to claim a leftist hero as a representative of his own values. Two years ago, for example, he started an annual ritual that involves schoolchildren reading a patriotic letter written by French communist resistance fighter Guy Môquet before he was executed by the Nazis in 1941. During his 2007 presidential campaign, he also repeatedly quoted the seminal French socialist leader (and Panthéon resident) Jean Jaurès in an attempt to infer that the legendary leftist would have backed the positions he was championing. (Read "A French Debate...
...What's fueling the debate over Môquet's letter is precisely what Môquet considered that higher purpose to be. In the view of Sarkozy and his backers, it was overthrowing Nazi domination for the freedom and liberty of the French nation; to others, it was overthrowing the very market system Sarkozy is seeking to bolster as he reforms France's welfare state. The youthful Môquet, many observers note, was a communist committed to revolution; a poem he wrote on the day of his arrest promised to "kill capitalism," and sought to give heart...
...religious objects like yarmulkes and Islamic hijab in public schools. That official state secularism was imposed at public schools in 1903 to end previous practices of Catholic theology being taught under the guise of non-denominational education; critics claim Sarkozy's embrace of the Môquet letter restores that practice on an ideological level. "Can we take the risk that the event will transform the high school into a political arena?" asked SNES in a statement explaining why it was urging its members not to respect the reading of the letter...
...Other opponents objected to the simplified honoring of Môquet's memory outside the context of the class struggle to which he and many other Resistance fighters were committed. That dumbing-down of history to provoke simplistic patriotic reaction bothers Leftist critics - especially given charges that Sarkozy's recent creation of a Ministry of Immigration and National Identity gives patriotism a xenophobic edge...
...Finally, some question Sarkozy's motives due to his belated embrace of Môquet's memory. Teachers at the Guy Môquet school say they had to lobby educational authorities for years before being allowed to change the name of the establishment in his honor. Nearly 20 years passed before anyone bothered to even notice the name change, and when they did, it came with massive media attention due to Sarkozy's recent decision. "When there's such a strong institutional pressure, you get the feeling you're being appropriated and exploited," Jérôme Muzard...