Plan B Forum

People in France are due to vote in local elections in which the far-right National Front party is expected to score big gains.

Voters are electing representatives in 101 departments, or counties, charged with issues like schools and welfare.

Sunday's first round will be followed a second in a week's time.

Polls suggest that the Socialists of President Francois Hollande will suffer another setback, after defeats in municipal and EU elections last year.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says France's changing electoral map means the vote is a three-horse race.

The Socialists and the centre-right UMP have been joined by Marine Le Pen's National Front (FN), not as a freakish upstart but a serious contender for power, our correspondent adds.

The FN has benefited from economic stagnation, high unemployment, and general hostility to mainstream parties.

The governing Socialists and their left-wing allies are expected to take the biggest hit, losing many of the 61 departments they hold.

But the FN is also taking voters from the UMP, which has struggled to unify behind a single leader since the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election.

Paris: Left-wing intellectuals who accused the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo of going too far by publishing drawings of the Prophet Mohammad are guilty of "disgusting paternalism", the satirical weekly's murdered editor claims in a book published posthumously.



Stephane Charbonnier's message from beyond the grave will rock the sense of national unity following the Paris terrorist attacks in which three terrorists shot dead 17 people before being killed.

Charb, as he was known, finished Open Letter to the Fraudsters of Islamophobia who Play into Racists' Hands two days before he was among 12 killed in the first attack by Islamist extremists to "avenge" the publication of drawings.

The book accuses the media of fomenting hatred against the magazine and the former Right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy of "freeing up" racism in France.

It criticises Islamists who apply the Koran to the letter as if they were "putting up Ikea shelves", and are ready to "cut the infidel's throats along the dotted line otherwise God will deprive me of Club Med in the afterlife".

But it saves its heaviest salvos for Left-leaning intellectuals, described as "ridiculous demagogues" for accusing Charlie Hebdo of going too far by publishing the drawings. Many of those intellectuals joined mass street demonstrations after Charb's death under the "Je Suis Charlie" banner.

"The suggestion that you can laugh at everything, except certain aspects of Islam, because Muslims are much more susceptible than the rest of the population, what is that, if not discrimination?" it asks.

"It's time to finish with this disgusting paternalism of the white, Left-wing bourgeois intellectual seeking to prove himself among the 'poor unfortunate undereducated'."

Seeking to explain what he saw as intellectuals' condescension masquerading as solidarity, Charb writes: "Since I am educated, I understand that Charlie Hebdo is using humour. But out of respect for you [Muslims], since you haven't yet discovered second-degree humour, I will denounce these Islamophobic drawings that I pretend not to understand. I will put myself at your level to show that I love you.

"These ridiculous demagogues just have a huge need to be the centre of attention and want to satisfy their formidable fantasy to dominate others."

Paris: Left-wing intellectuals who accused the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo of going too far by publishing drawings of the Prophet Mohammad are guilty of "disgusting paternalism", the satirical weekly's murdered editor claims in a book published posthumously.



Stephane Charbonnier's message from beyond the grave will rock the sense of national unity following the Paris terrorist attacks in which three terrorists shot dead 17 people before being killed.

Charb, as he was known, finished Open Letter to the Fraudsters of Islamophobia who Play into Racists' Hands two days before he was among 12 killed in the first attack by Islamist extremists to "avenge" the publication of drawings.

The book accuses the media of fomenting hatred against the magazine and the former Right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy of "freeing up" racism in France.

It criticises Islamists who apply the Koran to the letter as if they were "putting up Ikea shelves", and are ready to "cut the infidel's throats along the dotted line otherwise God will deprive me of Club Med in the afterlife".

But it saves its heaviest salvos for Left-leaning intellectuals, described as "ridiculous demagogues" for accusing Charlie Hebdo of going too far by publishing the drawings. Many of those intellectuals joined mass street demonstrations after Charb's death under the "Je Suis Charlie" banner.

"The suggestion that you can laugh at everything, except certain aspects of Islam, because Muslims are much more susceptible than the rest of the population, what is that, if not discrimination?" it asks.

"It's time to finish with this disgusting paternalism of the white, Left-wing bourgeois intellectual seeking to prove himself among the 'poor unfortunate undereducated'."

Seeking to explain what he saw as intellectuals' condescension masquerading as solidarity, Charb writes: "Since I am educated, I understand that Charlie Hebdo is using humour. But out of respect for you [Muslims], since you haven't yet discovered second-degree humour, I will denounce these Islamophobic drawings that I pretend not to understand. I will put myself at your level to show that I love you.

"These ridiculous demagogues just have a huge need to be the centre of attention and want to satisfy their formidable fantasy to dominate others."

Crackpot wrote:Could you post that again? I missed it the first two times.

A new cartoon sits on the crowded walls of Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris.



The image will be familiar to many Australians who followed the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine in January.

Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope's stark, confronting "He drew first" pencil sketch, drawn while watching TV reports late at night after the shooting, went viral on social media within hours.
It was instantly, instinctively familiar to the staff at Charlie Hebdo, too.

Any of them could have drawn this, cartoonist and managing editor Riss said on Monday. "This is exactly how we felt and how we feel."

The sketch, signed and framed, was presented to the staff of Charlie on Monday by foreign minister Julie Bishop, as a gesture of Australia's sympathy and support.

Ms Bishop said it was a "love your work" gesture.

"We see satire as an integral part of French society," Ms Bishop told the staff as she presented the cartoon. "Satire is controversial, it's provocative, it offends all religions, all political parties, nothing and no-one is spared. (It) is a counter-balance against power."

Ms Bishop said she admired the stoicism and courage of those who worked at the magazine, and those who had come to work there since the tragedy.

The cartoon was a "expression of sympathy and admiration from the people of Australia", she said.