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Both outgoing Socialist Party Secretary General Martine Aubry and
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who represent the majority
wing of the party (wings are called "motions" or platforms), announced
in a terse statement this Wednesday morning they've chosen Harlem
Désir as the next party boss--pending the vote by party members in
October.
Harlem Désir prevailed over his rival, Paris socialist MP
Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, who quickly wrote on his blog that Désir
could "count on me" for full support.
The result of the October vote by socialist party members is said to
be a foregone conclusion.
Party faithfuls will rubber-stamp that choice, as in a recent opinion
poll carried out by Paris-Match, 70% of them chose Désir over
Cambadélis.
This is the first time that a black French citizen leads a major
political party and, hence, is in a position to be a presidential
candidate.
Another first in French politics was the appointment by President
François Hollande of the controversial French Guianian politician
Christiane Taubira as Justice Minister.
Harlem Désir, 52, was born in Paris to a Martinican father and a
French mother from Alsace.
His father gave him the first name Harlem to celebrate the resilience
in the fight for civil rights by the African-American people.
The center of the American civil rights movement is often mistakenly
thought in France to have been centered in Harlem, New York City.
Placing Harlem at the epicenter of the worth of everything
African-American might have also been reinforced by the fame of the
Harlem Renaissance School of Poets, whose study long used to be a
requirement in the curriculum of Francophone high schools.
A co-founder of rights organization SOS-Racisme, the charismatic Désir
also sits in the European Parliament.
Would he be the French Obama?
Supporters say yes. But critics point to his 1998 18-month suspended
sentence and the hefty fine he had to pay for the "misuse of social
goods."
Désir was prosecuted and convicted for getting paid huge salaries in a
bogus job scheme while chairing SOS-Racisme.
Confronted yesterday on that sentence by the radio station France
Info, Désir said:
"Nothing new is uncovered about me. Those condemnations stem from
facts, twenty-five years ago, when I was a young party member.
"The court ruled and I don't have any comment to make even though [the
sentence] could have harmed me.
"It was a mistake. But never has my integrity come into question.
"There had not been personal enrichment."
(Sources: lejdd.fr; & metrofrance.com)
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PHOTO CREDITS: lejdd.fr
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