"Where are they coming from?" he asked his newly appointed prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "I think it's the Corsicans, sir," replied Raffarin, equally shaken. Red-faced, Chirac, who has promised to restore the authority of the Republic, stormed out of the presidential box, followed meekly by three cabinet ministers. "I cannot accept these attacks on the essential values of the Republic," he fumed.

"It was overdone but well-played," said an admiring Dominique Voynet of Chirac's nationalistic theatrics. Voynet is the leader of the Green Party, part of the defeated Plural Left governmental coalition led by the Socialist Party.

No one in France has forgotten how the Marseillaise was booed by the overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of young sports fans at the October 6 match between France and Algeria. The fans, raised in France and for the most part born here, showed their support for Algeria against France as well as their critical opinion of the "fundamental values of the French Republic." Now young Corsicans have made a similar demonstration.

In the presence of reporters, Chirac ordered Claude Simonet, the president of the French Football Association, to give his official apologies "to France" for the insult. "Do it," Chirac ordered, using language more commonly employed by an army general in addressing his lowliest subordinate. Simonet "did it" and was promptly greeted by another round of whistles and catcalls.

A final attempt to sing the Marseillaise was drowned out by yet another round from the Corsican side. The Corsican team lost the match 1-0, but the 50 or so young Corsican nationalists who are accused of having planned the incident and who were spontaneously joined by thousands of others, had clearly won an important political point. The Corsican question has returned to haunt the newly elected government as it has managed to do to virtually every government elected over the last quarter-century.  
 
Corsican national aspirations
Hopes in Corsica were high when the previous Socialist Party-led government of premier Lionel Jospin opened negotiations with the various Corsican nationalist groups in December 1999. Many Corsicans managed to hide their disappointment when the "Matignon negotiations" produced a law granting only extremely limited autonomy to the island. The Constitutional Council promptly declared even this modest transfer of power to the Corsican assembly to be anti-constitutional.

In subsequent negotiations, Jospin agreed to move towards an amendment of the constitution--in the year 2004. Chirac has opposed any amendment to the constitution concerning Corsica.

Abstentions in Corsica in the second round of the recent presidential elections, with Chirac opposing the extreme rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen, reached a record high of 33 percent in one of the two Corsican departments, the highest rate of abstentions in the second round.

Three days after the elections, a bomb went off in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11 French civil employees of the Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN). They were working on a contract building submarines for the Pakistani government.

"There can be no sanctuary for terrorists," Chirac piously proclaimed. Seizing the opportunity to promote France's imperialist interests in the world, he promised that the authors of "the monstrous crime will be punished. We will not yield to threats and blackmail. This is the struggle of democracy and freedom. It is the struggle of France, of Europe, of the United States and its allies. In our territory and throughout the entire world our army, our intelligence services, our police and gendarmes are defending our security and our citizens."  
 
Appeals to nationalism
Addressing the memorial service at the Cherbourg arsenal, where the workers and technicians had been employed, Chirac gave the "thanks of the nation" to those who "have paid the heavy price for spreading the influence of France and defending its interests."

The new government has also been driving full steam ahead with its domestic "law and order" campaign. A new ministry of Internal Security has been established combining the different police and intelligence organizations under one administration. Nicolas Sarkozy, the new security minister, has been visiting police commissariats and crime sites in well-televised daily appearances. "The police force should be treated with consideration, respected, I would even say they should be loved," he said.

Sarkozy has announced the immediate formation of 28 Regional Intervention Groups combining the national police, gendarmerie, and customs and tax agents into a strike force to "fight crime and the parallel economy" that is allegedly prevalent in the suburban working class and immigrant housing projects.

One of the minister's most publicized appearances was at Corbeil-Essonnes. The police claim that during the previous evening a police car and its three occupants had been attacked by 30 young people wearing hoods. They were apparently among those who do not "love" the police. The car's windshield was shattered, the brick conveniently left inside to be found by Minister Sarkozy, who immediately announced that "since the local police are being attacked the government has decided to give you the means to eradicate the explosion of violence you face." The police will henceforth be armed with flashballs, a type of rubber bullet.

The Socialist Party has objected to Chirac taking full credit for the idea of combining all police forces under one administration, given that similar measures had occasionally been adopted by SP-led governments. They have also claimed paternity rights concerning the newly formed Regional Intervention Force.  
 
 
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