First session of Wednesday 12 April 2006
198th session of the ordinary assembly 2005-2006
Presided by M. Jean-Louis Debré
(The session opened at 9h30.)
1. Reminder of the rules.
The President: Mr Jean-Pierre Brard will speak to remind us of the rules.
Mr Brard: My speech directly concerns how the session takes place. It fits perfectly into article 58 of the rules.
The right to amend is a fundamental right of parliamentary representatives. It allows them to influence the making of the law.
Well, Mr President, you have made one of my amendments disappear. (Exclamations from the UMP benches.) I am surprised at you. You always have protected the rights of the opposition. The amendment went like this: “Article 8 of law number 2006-396 of March 31, 2006, on the equality of opportunity has been karchérisé [fire-hosed down, a reference to UMP leader Nicolas Sarkozy's use of the word during the unrest in November 2005].”
Several deputies of the UMP: It’s not French!
Mr Brard: Even though that amendment was examined by the Social Affairs Committee—in other words under the control of Mr Hénart and Mr Dubernard—you have judged its words to be unacceptable, under the pretext that the verb “karchériser” is not in the Larousse dictionary.
Mr President, I will first say that the Larousse is not an official document; it does not make the law in linguistic matters; it does not even have academic authority. Second, the fact precedes the law. It is not I who first used this word, which is Teutonic, but, and there’s nothing surprising about this, it was a politician who declared in New York that he felt like a foreigner in his own country.
I do not have to teach you, Mr President, since you yourself use that art, that humor is often more useful than boring litanies of legal formalism. On my side, I have found a dictionary that defined “karchériser” as “to clean thoroughly” or in other words to remove what is not clean— in this case, the CPE.
Mr Jean-Michel Dubernard [President of the Cultural, Familial, and Social Affairs Committee]: This is advertising! That’s enough!
Mr President: Finish up, Mr Brard.
Mr Brard: I am finishing, Mr President.
Mr Gérard Larcher [Minister for Employment, Work, and Insertion of Youth into Careers] This is Bricorama! [a large home-repairs store]
Mr Brard: Not at all. That word, which betrays a profound scorn for the youth of poor areas, constitutes a veritable aggression….
Mr Eric Raoult: The company in question is based in Seine-Saint-Denis!
Mr Brard: …against the youth, Mr Raoult, who are already humiliated daily, constantly denigrated in their personal and family life. The minister of the government, whose character of provocateur is known to us, will not go so far as to take responsibility for his past opinions. I remind you of the enthusiastic declarations of the Sarkozyites of this assembly….
Mr President: Thank you, Mr Brard….
Mr Brard: …in favor of the CPE.
Mr President: Mr Brard.
Mr Brard: You will allow me to finish by saying, Mr President, that you are wrong to deprive the assembly of the support of the government minister for the renewal of our language, a government minister who is the friend of Madame Bétancourt and of Tom Cruise!
Mr President: It is true, Mr Brard, that I refused your amendment. But be aware that I intend to submit to the Académie française, first the question of whether this word is French, and secondly your candidacy! (Smiles)
--Noted from the blog Aixtal, post of 16 April 2006.
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