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Today was Jacques Toubon's last day of work in his French gov. position as "Défenseur des droits" [Defender of rights]. Largely unknown outside of France, Toubon used his office to become a powerful, principled, indispensable voice on racism, civil liberties, & police violence
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Today widely acclaimed in France for his record as Défenseur des droits, portrayed in fond terms as a kind of "woke" French technocrat, Toubon is as unlikely a poster-boy for civil rights and the defense of a multi-cultural vision of France as one could imagine
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A pure product of the Sciences-Po/ENA educational track that trains much of France's high civil service/political elite, Toubon began his career in the 1960s in the orbit of the Gaullist party's rising young star Jacques Chirac
He helped Chirac take control of the party, ...
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He helped Chirac take control of the party, ...
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and followed him into Parisian municipal politics after Chirac was first elected mayor of the capital in 1977. Toubon served as mayor of the 13e arrondissement from 1983 to 2001 and deputy in the National Assembly from 1981 to 1993
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during the 2nd cohabitation between Pres. Mitterrand and a right-wing government led by Balladur, Toubon was named minister of culture and francophonie. His tenure is best remembered for a major law in defense of the French language, known as the "Loi Toubon", guaranteeing ...
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citizens and employees the right to be provided all legal texts, labor contracts and workplace regulations in French, product labels & ads were also required to be in Fr; it regulated primary/secondary school instruction in regional languages 6/
Toubon was also responsible for a law setting quotas for French-language songs broadcast by radio stations (all this reserves for Toubon an important place in the history of language planning in France, but that's another story) 7/
his patron Chirac's victory in the 1995 presidential elections launched the next chapter in Toubon's career. Chirac named him minister of justice, which proved an explosively sensitive position as the cascade of corruption scandals surrounding Chirac began to unfold ... 8/
illegal campaign financing, election fraud, misuse of public funds for personal benefit, irregular attribution of apartments in Paris public housing, the list was long. Like all of Chirac's lieutenants, Toubon did his part to pull levers, quash investigations, slow procedures, 9/
and protect his president. Most famously, when in October 1996 the assistant prosecutor of Evry launched an investigation concerning Xavière Tiberi (the wife of Jean Tiberi, Chirac's handpicked successor as mayor of Paris), Toubon chartered a helicopter ... 10/
in Nepal to try and fetch the chief prosecutor, who was on vacation trekking in the Himalaya, so as to pressures him to quash the investigation
When the left win the 1997 legislative elections, Toubon's reputation outside of his own political camp is in tatters, widely seen 11/
When the left win the 1997 legislative elections, Toubon's reputation outside of his own political camp is in tatters, widely seen 11/
as a hack in a Chiraquie filled with hacks or loyal creatures ready to fall on their swords to protect the boss
Over the next few years, Toubon participates in the petty internecine fighting that wracked a Gaullist camp in perdition, licking its wounds from the 1997 defeat 12/
Over the next few years, Toubon participates in the petty internecine fighting that wracked a Gaullist camp in perdition, licking its wounds from the 1997 defeat 12/
and reeling from the charges of corruption. Toubon participates in a failed effort among dissident Gaullists to vote Tiberi out as mayor, and then finds himself charged with corruption (the charges were ultimately dismissed)
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elected to the EUropean parliament in 2004 and then to chair a series of blue ribbon commissions, he was rapidly disappearing from political view when he was unexpectedly named by of all people the Socialist president François Hollande as Défenseur des Droits in 2014 14/
the position was created in 2008 as part of a broader constitutional reform promulgated by then pres. Nicolas Sarkozy, aimed at "modernizing" the 5th Republic (among other things, setting a 2-term limit on presidents, making it easier to request a ruling on the ... 15/
constitutionality of laws by the Constitutional Council). The Défenseur des Droits was a new version of an old position formerly known as the "Médiateur de la République", a kind of ombudsman charged with helping citizens at loggerheads w/some gov. administration 16/
the Médiateur didn't have much power. Under its constitutional mandate, the new Défenseur des droits had modestly expanded authority: citizens could refer cases to the défenseur, who had limited authority to conduct independent investigations, and can recommend to judicial 17/
authorities that matters merit formal investigation or prosecution. Ultimate authority to pursue cases however still rests with prosecutors or investigative magistrates, so the Défenseur's role can be said to be one of consultation, oversight, and advise, rather than ... 18/
enforcement. Indeed, the Défenseur was never meant to be more than constitutional window dressing--Sarkozy, whose real inclinations leaned towards full-throated defense of law-and-order and giving full licence to heavy-handed policing, was not interested in creating 19/
an independent institution that might, for example, police the police, or have real power to investigate/prosecute charges of discrimination. His choice as first Défenseur des droits was proof of this. Dominique Baudis, a former journalist, tv news anchorman 20/
turned mayor of Toulouse and local Gaullist baron (his father too had been mayor of the ville rose), Baudis was named Défenseur as a political reward, a patronage gift, not for any expertise or commitment to rights or rule of law 21/
Baudis passed away suddenly in 2014, and Hollande to the surprise of all named Toubon to the post. It's what Toubon did with the office that has been an even greater surprise. As an Énarque and a former minister of justice, he was as well placed as anyone to know the very 22/
real limits of the office. Rather than content himself to a well-remunerated but irrelevant sinecure, Toubon instead found ways to leverage the office to advance its mission--namely, to use its investigatory powers to explore the major issues under its jurisdiction 23/
(his office put out 73 major reports during his term), and to use his access to media to publicize them. Toubon was as forceful as he was tireless in underscoring and denouncing the systemic character of racial discrimination in the workplace, housing, 24/
access to public services. In a period when policing practices, whether aimed at people of color or at political dissent, has grown increasingly arbitrary and violent (it's worth recalling that one of the architects of this law enforcement turn, Sarkozy, is ironically 25/
also the architect of the Défenseur des droits office), Toubon was also a rare voice in government (and an extremely rare voice on the right) to denounce them. Indeed, his last act as Défenseur des droits was to present a report on law enforcement to the interior minister 26/
detailing the waysin which police weapons and tactics (tear gas, rubber bullets, kettling, broad sweeps during protests, etc.) represented grave violations of citizens'rights, and recommended sweeping changes 27/ https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2020/07/10/la-question-du-maintien-de-l-ordre-l-ultime-decision-du-defenseur-des-droits_6045787_1653578.html
Toubon also has not hesitated to denounce the "systemic racism" that characterizes police practices and attitudes towards people of color 28/ https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2020/06/03/le-defenseur-des-droits-denonce-la-discrimination-systemique_6041628_3224.html
sadly, his has been a lonely voice amongst those in power in recent years -- including on the left (if we consider that Hollande's interior ministers, Valls and Cazeneuve, were no less behind giving police broadly expansive powers and a pass on any real outside scrutiny). 29/
His six years as Défenseur are at once a remarkable, admirable achievement--he has worked hard at putting issues of equity, the fight against racial discrimination and police brutality, on the national agenda. They are also, as he would be the first to admit, a failure--one 30/
anchored in the constitutional limits on the Défenseur des Droit's authority. His success underscores genuine institutional limits in France: the absence of independent authorities with real power to investigate and prosecute police brutality and racial discrimination. 31/
His legacy--which some would say represents a kind of political and ethical redemption in the shadow of Himalayan helicopters--is to have helped put these pressing issues on the agenda, and to repeatedly underscore the contradictions within France's Republican project, the 32/
yawning gap between the republic's promise of equality and fraternity, and the ways in which so many have used the discourse of republicanism to excuse or disguise inequities, or even to stigmatize minorities. I never thought I would say this about a chiraquien pur jus whom 33/
I had figured in the 90s as an unprincipled hack, but I am sorry to see Toubon go, and will miss his voice. France needs more voices like his. FIN
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