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# Sarkozy: ``Voltaire is not negotiable''
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/sarkozy-voltaire-is-not-negotiable/
- Published: 2007-09-05T09:09:55.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:37:14.000Z
- Author: Tony Curzon Price
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:31

Sarkozy has established the chillingly named [Ministère de l'Immigration, de l'Intégration, de l'Identité nationale et du Codéveloppement.](http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/acteurs/gouvernement/ministere%5Fimmigration%5Fintegration%5Fidentite%5Fm609/?ref=opendemocracy.net).

Does this make immigration a \`\`national identity problem''? Ministries are set up to deal with problems. This ministry defines a problem and a solution. Is it a throw-back to \`\`the sombre years of France's past''. France's élite, from the President down, is admirably composed of the descendants of immigrants. [Listen to Jean-Philippe Moinet and Patrick Weil debating with Alain Finkielkraut](http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/emissions/repliques/index.php?ref=opendemocracy.net), whether it is time, as Finkielkraut asks, to \`\`recognise the singularity of today'' and ignore the terrible echoes of history in the new ministry.

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tony curzon price 2007-09-05