Trouble in the court of Sarkozy 萨科齐：恭敬带来的麻烦

[2007.12.06]Race and politics in France-Trouble in the court of Sarkozy
Race and politics in France 法国政治竞赛
Trouble in the court of Sarkozy 萨科齐：恭敬带来的麻烦
Dec 6th 2007 | PARIS 写于2007年12月6日 巴黎
From The Economist print edition 摘自经济学人杂志印刷版
The most prominent Muslim minister causes a stir at home and abroad
能力最超群的穆斯林部长在国内与国际上都引起了轩然大波
SHE was dressed in Dior for the dinner in honour of Nicolas Sarkozy at the White House, and seated at the king‘s table for the one in Morocco. She was in China with the French president last week, and at his side again this week for a state visit to Algeria. No other minister seems to follow the globe-trotting Mr Sarkozy as much as Rachida Dati, his justice minister, and none is so scrutinised by the French media.
她身上喷洒着迪奥牌香水，深感荣幸地在美国白宫陪同法国总统尼古拉斯•萨科齐先生，又在摩洛哥与总统一同坐在了国王的餐桌旁。上周，她与法国总统走访了中国，而本周在萨科齐对阿尔及利亚进行国事访问时再次走在了总统的身边。在法国，没有其他任何部长能像司法部长拉齐达•达蒂（Rachida Dati）那样满世界地陪着萨科齐先生，而且更没有哪位部长能被法国媒体如此关注。

Eyevine- The minister for justice, and foreign travel
司法部长的出国之旅
The first Muslim to hold such a top government job, and a woman to boot, Ms Dati has become emblematic of an effort to open up the French elite. This makes her controversial judicial reform a test of the new France in more ways than one.
达蒂是第一位担任如此政府高职的穆斯林人，而且是一位女人，她已经成为试图挖掘法国精英人士的一个象征。这也让她倍受争议的司法改革不仅仅是对法国改革的考验。
Ms Dati‘s backstory, as recounted in her recent book, “Je Vous Fais Juges” (“You be the Judge”), reads more like that of Barack Obama than the typical French minister. One of 12 children raised in a council flat by an illiterate Algerian mother and a Moroccan stonemason, she rose and qualified as a magistrate through a mix of tenacity, pushiness and hard work, including night shifts as a nursing auxiliary.
达蒂女士的背景在她最新出版的《假如你是法官》（Je Vous Fais Juges）一书中提到，与其说她像一位典型的法国部长，不如说她更像巴拉克•奥巴马（Barack Obama）。她有11个兄弟姐妹，从小在一间地方行政公寓长大，母亲是一位阿尔及利亚文盲，父亲这是一位摩洛哥石匠。她有着坚韧不拔、一意孤行与艰苦努力的精神，包括无数个夜晚的操劳与护理助手工作，这些使她在人生路上步步高升并成为一位合格的地方法官。
She was adopted by Mr Sarkozy when he was interior minister (she had written to him cold, and demanded a meeting) and has worked in his team ever since. Since she was appointed rather than elected, Mr Sarkozy‘s centre-right party is seeking to boost her standing by putting her top of the list for the next municipal elections in the bourgeois 7th arrondissement of Paris. Ms Dati‘s ascent prompts as much admiration as it does resentment. Her appointment did not prevent another eruption of street violence in the heavily Muslim banlieues last month. In the same week that rioters torched cars, the country‘s justices also took to the streets during a strike to protest against her plans to amalgamate courts. Robert Badinter, a Socialist senator and former justice minister, said he had never seen “such anxiety and bitterness” from magistrates.
达蒂是在萨科齐先生担任内务部长时被采纳的，并从那时就与萨科齐共事至今（当时达蒂给萨科齐写了一封意志坚定的信件，并要求会面）。由于达蒂是被指派而不是选举产生，因此萨科齐的中右派就想方设法提升她的地位，他们把达蒂的名字放在巴黎第七届行政长官候选人第一位，以赢取下一届的都市选举。达蒂女士的政治生涯的急速上升让很多人羡慕，也让很多人怨恨。上个月，正是因为她被指派为司法部长才遭至了另一起在穆斯林居多的郊区城镇爆发的街头暴力。在同一周里，暴乱者用火引爆汽车，乡村法官们在一次罢工中也走上了大街，以抗议她合并法庭的计划。社会党参议员兼前任司法部长罗伯特•巴定特（Robert Badinter）讲道，他从来看到过地方长官“会如此焦急与痛楚“。
Unpopular as it may be, the reform makes sense. The geography of the French court system has not changed in nearly half a century, despite huge population shifts. In largely rural areas, there is a tribunal de grande instance (county court) for fewer than 150,000 people; in big cities, one such court serves over 550,000. In Lorraine in eastern France, ten magistrates‘ courts employ a full-time judge without the workload to justify it, and two have none at all. By contrast, some city courts have vast backlogs. Ms Dati plans to close 178 of the 473 magistrates‘ courts, and 23 county courts, and redistribute staff.
她的改革也许不受欢迎，但却很有成效。尽管法国人口有了巨大的分布变化，但法国司法体系的地理分布几乎半个世纪都没有进行过调整。主要在农村地区，不到十五万的人口居住区就设有一个乡镇法庭（tribunal de grande instance，又称大事法庭）；在大城市里，一个同规模的法庭却要为五十五万人口提供服务。在法国东部的洛林（Lorraine），一些城市法庭会积压很多的案件。达蒂女士计划要将473家地方法庭中178家都关闭，另外23家村镇法庭也将被关闭，司法人员的职位会得到再分配。
Mr Sarkozy has made clear his desire to shake up the court system to speed up decisions, improve access and end the isolation of some investigating judges. An inquiry into one of France‘s most egregious recent miscarriages of justice—the imprisonment of 13 people wrongfully accused of running a paedophile ring in Outreau—said one cause was the fact that the investigating judge was working entirely alone.
萨科齐总统已经非常清楚地声明要对司法体系进行巨大改革，以快速决策、提高评估审议过程以及终止一些偏向调查的法官的孤立主义做法。最近，法国出现了一起最惊人的司法错案——13人被错误得控告为在Outreau进行恋童癖连环案，据此一份调查表示，一个根本原因是进行调查的法官完全独立地工作，以致于产生了误判。
Naturally, magistrates affected by closures are enraged. Members of parliament, even those from Mr Sarkozy‘s party, have been fiercely critical of Ms Dati‘s plans too, accusing her of striking courts off the map without consultation. There also seems to be genuine concern about Ms Dati‘s management style. In her short time in office, more than half a dozen members of her staff have quit.
地方法官因为法庭关闭而愤怒不已，这是很自然地。一些议会成员对达蒂女士的计划持严厉的批评态度，指责她在没有磋商的情况下就关闭一些法庭，甚至一些萨科齐党派的人也是如此。另外，达蒂女士的管理方式似乎值得真正地去考虑一下。在她入职的短短时间里，她的职员中有超过一半的人辞职。
The trouble for critics is that questions about Ms Dati‘s competence collide with France‘s awkward new political correctness. Charges of racism are already in the air. Dominique Sopo, head of SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination group, says hostility to her reform is because she is “young, a woman, and of North African origin. Unfortunately, this profile creates resentment among a French elite made up of white men over 55.”
评论家们的难处是，对达蒂女士的质疑与法国叫人难堪的新政治改革思路相抵触。大众现在已经在谈论一些关于种族主义的责难。一个反歧视团体“种族主义警号“的主席多米尼克•索普（Dominique Sopo）讲道，社会上对他的改革表示敌意是因为她“年轻，是个女人，而且是北非血统”。不幸的是，对达蒂女士的这种态度在由55岁以上白人组成的精英人士中引起了怨恨。
Still, other female members of the government too are said to have been put out by Ms Dati‘s prominence, not least the Senegalese-born Rama Yade, junior foreign minister for human rights, who was excluded from Mr Sarkozy‘s trip to China.
政府中其他女性成员也据说也因达蒂女士的出类拔萃而显得微不足道，尤其是塞内加尔出生的人权初级外交家拉玛•亚德（Rama Yade）倍受影响，而她也被取消跟随萨克齐走访中国。
Mr Sarkozy has stood solidly by Ms Dati throughout. Having publicly admired the ethnic diversity of the Bush administration in America, Mr Sarkozy is commendably keen to reproduce it in France. Indeed, given her iconic value, he cannot afford to let her fail.
时刻有着达蒂女士在身边，萨科齐的总统地位坚实多了。法国总统萨科齐公然仰慕布什政府的种族多样化之后，他在自己的法国政府中也迫切地实行同类政策。诚然，既然萨科齐让达蒂女士有了象征性的意义，那么他也不会让达蒂的改革失败。