French politics remains largely white, male affair

PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) Despite President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to make his government more ethnically diverse, the newly elected parliament shows French politics remains mostly white and mostly male.

Following Sunday's ballot, less than a fifth of the lower house of parliament's 577 deputies are women, none of the lawmakers is of African origin and only one of the deputies from mainland France is black.

''People must understand that French society is coloured and diverse,'' that deputy, Socialist George Pau-Langevin, told Reuters.

Compared to other European countries, many French are only starting to become aware of diversity issues, she said.

Sarkozy was criticised for his tough handling of riots in deprived, ethnically-mixed suburbs during his time as interior minister in 2005 but he has tried to use the formation of his government to show France is a land of equal opportunity.

Having made Rachida Dati, the daughter of poor North African immigrants, his justice minister, Sarkozy today appointed Rama Yade, who is of Senegalese origin, as secretary of state for human rights and Fadela Amara, of Algerian origin, secretary of state for towns.

France does not keep statistics on its ethnic make-up because it says such surveys would undermine the presumption of equality of citizenship.

An independent report published this year showed some 4 per cent of adults considered themselves black.

France's new assembly will feature several black deputies from its overseas departments. But rights groups say these and Pau-Langevin are too few to represent either France's black people or its citizens with diverse immigrant backgrounds.

''(France's) 'good conscience' derives from the fact that we are the country of human rights, but this distances us from proving it in everyday life,'' said Louis-Georges Tin from the Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAM).

Although Sarkozy's government includes roughly as many women as men, only 107 parliamentarians are female, an improvement on the 71 women in the last assembly.

''France now still only ranks 58th globally in the matter (equality),'' said political scientist Olivier Costa told Les Echos daily.

France granted women the right to vote only in 1945 and has failed to draw many into top flight politics despite a 2000 law aimed at creating parity between the sexes in parliament.

Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost the presidential run-off against Sarkozy last month, was considered to be modern France's first women with serious chances of ascending to the top post.

One in four Socialist deputies is a women.

In the UMP, which Sarkozy headed until last month, only 30 per cent of the parliamentary candidates were female and out of 323 deputies, only 45 were women.

REUTERS PY RAI2149