Darling of French Left in row over boot camps

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/06/05/wfran05.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/06/05/ixnews.html

France's Socialists were divided yesterday after front-running presidential candidate Ségolène Royal adopted a traditionally Right-wing stance in proposing to send the most troublesome and violent youths for military training.

Miss Royal, 52, daughter of a strict Roman Catholic colonel, has caused uproar by suggesting that unruly teenagers should receive military training even after just one offence and that failing parents should be sent back to school and have their child benefit managed by a third party.

The comments - which have led to controversy in France where military service was eliminated in 1996 - have drawn outrage from some Socialists and support from others struggling to meet the country's need for a solution to waves of suburban violence. "The army neither has the capacity nor the vocation to redress society's ills. Let's not ask of the military things it is not trained to do," said Daniel Vaillant, a Socialist Paris deputy and former interior minister.

"France is confronted with the emergence of new violent phenomena, often coming from youths, and which the current set-up is not dealing with. When there are floods, we send in the military, even if it is not their job. So why not call on them to discipline young people?" said Malek Boutih, the Socialists' national secretary of social affairs.

[Kagemusha]

1. For accuracy's sake: where MANDATORY service was dropped in '96

Just pointing that out.

[tocqueville]

2. yep but she has the support of 70% of the population on that point

and the few boot camps that have existed so far have given excellent results...

[blackhorse]

4. Very skeptical here.

What kind of "excellent results"?

Is this just a "go to boot camp" program or does it involve actual service afterwards in the Armée de Terre?

I'm disappointed that France apparently thinks the army is a good solution for this social problem. That's the kind of thinking I've come to expect from the USA.

Cheers

[w4rma]

3. The owners of the Telegraph would like to see them split. (nt)