French Socialists are now urging an end to the riots they incited Sunday after their presidential candidate lost to conservative Nicolas Sarkozy. Most interesting is the completely unbiased reporting by AP writer Angela Charlton.
The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after a second night of post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed.While the unrest has been small-scale, it sent a message to Nicolas Sarkozy: He may have won the presidency, but he hasn't won over the many French who consider him—and his free-market reforms and tough line on crime and immigration—frighteningly brutal.
Sarkozy, who beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff Sunday, is a divisive figure whose tough language and crackdowns on crime and immigration have angered many on the left—and in the immigrant-heavy suburban housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005. An anti- Sarkozy rally in Paris was planned for Tuesday afternoon.
Some 730 cars were burned nationwide Sunday night and 592 people arrested, police said.
The language shows that the "some people" who are so often referred to most likely includes the reporter herself. Rather than sourceless opinions, why not actually do some reporting and get some quotes? And since when is "small-scale violence" a term sufficient to describe 730 burnt cars and almost 600 arrests?
