Oft elitist French elections try a town-hall style
A spate of new television programs feature 'real people,' rather than journalists or experts, interrogating presidential candidates.
from the March 19, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
Still, the televised encounters between ordinary people and politicians have produced moments of drama and even pathos.
The private channel TF 1 has a program called, "I Have a Question to Ask You," which is like a televised focus group. One hundred people are selected by a consulting company to be demographically, socially, and ethnically representative of the nation as a whole. They fire questions at the candidates for more than two hours.
Last month, Interior Minister Sarkozy, the candidate of the main right-wing political party, confronted Hakim Khenfer. The 25-year-old carpenter from a suburb of Tours recounted how he had been handcuffed, forced to his knees, and treated as a "dirty foreigner" by police officers checking his identity papers. Sarkozy responded by promising the audience a complete investigation – and, to Mr. Khenfer's subsequent embarrassment, he acted with unprecedented speed.
Two days after his television appearance, Khenfer was summoned by the inspector general of the police to tell his story. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the exact date of the incident, a lapse that was fully reported in the French papers.
"I never asked to have my own case resolved," Khenfer said. "I'm just fighting in the name of everyone who is a victim of racial profiling."
In a subsequent session of the program later in the month, Royal was confronted by someone who felt unjustly treated in another way. Bernard Bontron, a 60-year-old man confined to a wheelchair. He wanted to know how she would help the handicapped. At one point, speaking of how the disabled are treated, he nearly broke down in tears.
Royal immediately left the podium, crossed the studio, and touched his arm in a show of sympathy seen in living rooms all across France.
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