Georges Frêche

Georges Frêche (born July 9, 1938) is a French politician. As of 2006, he serves as President of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, as well as President of the Agglomeration of Montpellier. A former mayor of Montpellier, and a former Deputy in the National Assembly, he is a history of law professor at University Montpellier 1. Frêche was a member of the French socialist party until he was expelled on January 27, 2007.

A long-time political figure within French political circles, Frêche is an extremely controversial character, on one side a great builder and visionary, on the other side criticized and condemned in court for his controversial, sometimes racial remarks.

Legacy

Frêche served as the mayor of Montpellier from 1977 to 2004, when he became President of the Languedoc-Roussillon region and had to give up his other political mandates. Building on the trend started by his predecessor François Delmas, who landed the Southern Europe IBM factory and headquarters as well as the scientific university, Frêche expanded Montpellier in all directions, propelling it from the 25th largest city in France to the 8th, in less than 30 years. Under Frêche, Montpellier, whose slogan, in the 1980s, reflecting Frêche's ambition, was "the overachiever", specialized in clean, tertiary industries such as banking, electronics and drinkable water processing.

While he was a member of French's Socialist Party (PS), and the leader of one of the largest socialist federations in France, Georges Frêche was never given a minister position in any socialist government, not even as socialist François Mitterrand was France's president for 14 years. This could be due to both the fact that Frêche is an embarrassing figure for the socialists, prone to multiple politically incorrect speeches with racist overtones, and his alleged refusal to let the socialist party be secretly financed by fake bills emitted by private company Urba (urba would cause a major political scandal in France). It is also to be noted that he had antagonized François Mitterrand as early as the foundation of the current French Socialist Party in 1971, being cast aside even at that date.

On January 27, 2007, the French Socialist Party announced that, after reviewing his case, and especially one of his many "outings", about how many Black players are in the French soccer team, Frêche was permanently expelled from the Socialist Party. Allegedly, Frêche wasn't trying to be racist, and was instead talking about Caucasians being bad at sports, because they aren't "hungry" enough, but he did have much more worrysome "outings" in the past, and it can be said that the Party has finally come to terms with the long list of controversial speeches during his entire career.

Management style

Georges Frêche is, at the same time, respected and feared by both his opponents, and members of his own party. He is known to be generous to his supporters and crush anyone who opposes him, whatever political party they belong to. As a result, he is not grooming anyone as his "political descendent".

Controversial speeches

* July 1, 2000: "This is the longest tunnel in the world. You enter it in France and you come out in Ouarzazate", a city in Morocco. Frêche was referring to the then-newly installed tramway line, of which one of the two terminus is in Montpellier's La Paillade, an area chiefly populated by citizens of Arabic origin and Muslim religion.
* April, 2005: "I hope he does better than the other idiot", referring to the election of the new pope Benedict XVI, replacing pope John-Paul II, the "idiot" in his sentence.
* February 11, 2006: "You are sub-humans", talking to a group of Harkis, who fought alongside France in the independence war of Algeria. This declaration ( which can barely be consider as a proper speech ) didn't actually target the Harki communauty, but a few men who insulted him during a commemoration ceremony. The words of "sub-humans" refears to the pretented cowardness of those people, who had the same morning taken part of a demonstration in support to the French law on colonialism, which asked teachers and textbooks to "acknowledge and recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North Africa", in Palavas-les-Flots. One shall remember that Georges Frêche have always supported the Harkis, just like they supported him to become mayor. The full declaration shows how targeting these words are : « Vous êtes vraiment d’une incurie incroyable. Vous ne connaissez pas l’histoire. Ah, vous êtes allés avec les gaullistes… Vous faites partie des harkis qui ont vocation à être cocus toute leur vie… Faut-il vous rappeler que 80 000 harkis se sont fait égorger comme des porcs parce que l'armée française les a laissés ? Moi qui vous ai donné votre boulot de pompier, gardez-le et fermez votre gueule ! Je vous ai trouvé un toit et je suis bien remercié. Arrêtez-vous ! Arrêtez-vous ! Allez avec les gaullistes ! Allez avec les gaullistes à Palavas. Vous y serez très bien ! Ils ont massacré les vôtres en Algérie et vous allez leur lécher les bottes ! Mais vous n’avez rien du tout ! Vous êtes des sous-hommes ! Rien du tout ! Il faut que quelqu’un vous le dise ! Vous êtes sans honneur. Vous n’êtes pas capables de défendre les vôtres ! Voilà, voilà… Allez, dégagez ! »
* November 15, 2006: "On [the French national football team] , there are 9 Blacks out of 11. The normal number would be three or four. This would reflect [French] society. But if there are so many, it is because Whites are lame. I'm ashamed for this country. Soon, there will be eleven blacks. When I see certain football teams, it makes me sad.", "Dans cette équipe, il y a neuf blacks sur onze. La normalité serait qu'il y en ait trois ou quatre. Ce serait le reflet de la société. Mais, là, s'il y en a autant, c'est parce que les blancs sont nuls. J'ai honte pour ce pays. Bientôt, il y aura onze blacks. Quand je vois certaines équipes de foot, ça me fait de la peine"." ["Nouvel Observateur". 27 January 2007. [http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/depeches/politique/20070127.FAP9832/georges_freche_exclu_du_parti_socialiste.html] ]

Frêche received support from political opponents such as Jean-Pierre Grand during the media storm that occurred after his outburst on the French soccer team. This may however be due to the aforementioned management style he uses in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

References

External links

*fr icon [http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/tribun/fiches_id/1366.asp Georges Frêche] National Assembly web-page.
* [http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061116/en_afp/francepoliticsracism_061116193319 French politician condemned for racist comments on football team]
* [http://www.paris-link-home.com/news/121/ARTICLE/1417/2006-11-16.html Frêche's outing on the French soccer team]
*fr icon [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-29539208@7-37,0.html Frêche expelled from the Socialist Party]