JCargoo loves people

By FT

The philosophical question of whether humans are guided by nature or nurture has emerged as an unlikely campaign issue in the French presidential election.

Nicolas Sarkozy, frontrunner in the race for the Elysée, has caused controversy by suggesting in an eight-page interview with a French philosophy magazine that paedophiles are genetically predestined to offend.

During the grilling by an atheist philosopher allied with José Bové, an anti-globalisation candidate, Mr Sarkozy also said he thought it likely the 1,200-1,300 French youths who committed suicide each year were predisposed to kill themselves.

Mr Sarkozy, who until recently was France’s interior minister, cultivated the image of a no-nonsense man of action while in government, dividing France with his aggressive pronouncements on crime. This new insight into his personality demonstrates that his contemplative side can be equally abrasive.

The Catholic archbishop of Paris, Mgr André Vingt-Trois, said he was alarmed at the implication that the destiny of certain people was written into their DNA.

Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate in second place in the polls, said it was the place of scientists and not politicians to pronounce on such matters.

François Bayrou, the centrist in third place, described Mr Sarkozy’s analysis as “terribly worrying”. “When Nicolas Sarkozy says that a child can be born already condemned to perversity or suicide . . . what kind of society is he living in?”

Liberally scattered with references to great thinkers such as Rousseau, Schopenhauer and Seneca – the latter having been a particular inspiration to Mr Sarkozy – the interview was published in the April edition of Philosophie magazine, alongside a pull-out devoted to Hegel.

While Mr Sarkozy was embroiled in the philosophical row, Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, was highlighting the former interior minister’s unpopularity in poor, ethnically mixed suburbs. On Friday, Mr Le Pen visited Argenteuil, the suburb where Mr Sarkozy in 2005 famously described local youths as “racaille” – a word that can be translated as scum, riffraff or rabble.

In a television interview last night, Mr Le Pen dwelt upon the fact that Mr Sarkozy is the son of a Hungarian immigrant, implying some voters might prefer someone with deeper French roots – such as Mr Le Pen.

Meanwhile, Azouz Begag, who resigned on Thursday as equal opportunities minister, has claimed in a new book that Mr Sarkozy once threatened to “smash his face in” during a disagreement. Mr Sarkozy said his former colleague, who supports Mr Bayrou, was lying.