Text 11060, 84 rader
Skriven 2005-04-04 22:03:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: French
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04128460.htm

French flag tribute to Pope sparks left-wing anger
04 Apr 2005 19:38:11 GMT

Source: Reuters
 
(Recasts with new quotes)

By Jon Boyle

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) - Politicians in secular France squabbled over 
whether the government had been right to order flags lowered on public 
buildings in a sign of respect for Pope John Paul.

Socialist senator Jean-Luc Melenchon and Yves Contassot, a senior Green 
party member on the Paris City Council, said the government had abused 
its powers on Monday by ordering the official tribute to the Pope, who 
died on Saturday.

The Unsa union said the government was guilty of double standards having 
ordered schools to take part in the tribute to a religious leader after 
banning Muslim headscarves in state schools in a drive to keep them 
firmly secular.

"Let the Christians pay tribute to the head of their church, it's a 
private matter," Contassot told France Inter radio.

"Today, we have a government and a head of state who, clearly, for 
political reasons, are trying to take advantage of an issue that is a 
private matter," he said.

Lowering of flags on all state buildings was "totally out of place and 
at the limit of legality."

Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin defended the government's move, 
saying the lowering of the flag was one of the "Republican customs" when 
a pope died.

"They have been applied at the occasion of the deaths of Pius XII, John 
XXIII and John Paul I," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Once so Catholic it was known as the "elder daughter of the Church", 
France has imposed a strict separation of church and state for 100 years 
to keep religion from provoking the bloody strife it sparked in previous 
centuries.

Millions of French are Roman Catholics, and there has been a public 
outpouring of grief over the Pope's death.

The row underscores the unpopular government's weakness as it struggles 
to convince hostile voters to back the European Union constitution in a 
referendum next month.

Socialist leader Francois Hollande said the government's reaction to the 
Pope's death had been "a bit excessive", but said: "This is not the time 
to have this type of debate".

Melenchon told Europe 1 radio the state was duty bound to observe a 
strict neutrality and that the flag tribute was a "favour awarded to one 
particular religion."

TRADITION

Cardinal Bernard Panafieu, Archbishop of Marseille, said he had 
"difficulty understanding" some of the reactions to the state's decision 
to lower French flags.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said France also 
ordered its flags lowered in 1991 on the death of Norway's King Olaf V 
and in 1989 when Japanese Emperor Hirohito died.

"It's a republican tradition ... that applies to heads of state in 
office with which France has special relations or is friendly," the 
official said.

"The Pope is head of the Catholic Church and head of the Vatican City 
State" and flags would again be at half mast on Friday when the Pontiff 
is buried. French President Jacques Chirac and his wife Bernadette are 
to attend the funeral.


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