The Angers carnival of self denigration

 News analysis. - The Angers carnival attracted thousand of inhabitants in downtown on the 2nd of april with a sunny weather which gave the city its first summer look with people sat on restaurants terrazas newly opened at Ralliement square. That location and all the surroundings streets were overcrowded for weekly shopping while the carnival, with its colourful districts bands, dansers and floats added supplementary vitality. Many little girls and boys were disguised and made up. Its would have been a very happy-go-lucky party if political concerns were not be there...

One of the floats showed the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, as a gorilla locked in a cage... For foreign people watching the scene, this is a matter of questionning. Recently, a similar "portrayal" of the French president was qualified by the Angers Republic prosecutor as an insult to the head of state according to a 1881 law. A similar (or was it the same float?) marched in the middle of the cortege at the Angers carnival... 

But, what is the most intriguing aspect of that case is the tendency of Angers inhabitants, or may be French people, to ridicule the first republic office in a middle of a carnival instead of a political rally. In fact, no political reproach was written on the float. So, it was the person of the French president which was trashed out. If everyone is untitled to critize a policy (which was implemented on the majority will), the denigration of a person (because of its face, its size..) is in fact a discrimination. And that is shocking.