Nicholas Sarkozy, France’s outspoken Interior Minister, has a new target: hooligan skiers. After swearing to clean out the nastiest housing estates with a sandblaster if necessary, a comment some say helped fuel last year’s riots, and cutting highway deaths by cracking down on speeding drivers, he is turning his attention to another problem zone: the ski slopes.
During a visit to Chamonix, he announced he favours ”zero tolerance” against ”risky skiers” who endanger the health of others. ”Irresponsible behaviour is unacceptable. We cannot allow people to behave like hooligans on the slopes,” Sarkozy said.
Last week, skiers were split over the new plans, which will apply to foreign visitors and locals. ”I’m here to relax, not be followed around by gendarmes,” said Pierre Bonelli (44), on holiday at Les Arcs. ”What are they going to do? Put speed cameras on the pistes? Ski with a blue light on their helmets?”
Others, however, back the plan. A swift poll of a group of beginners waiting for their lesson on the nursery slopes found universal support. ”There are some really dangerous drivers … sorry … skiers,” said Marie-Helene (13). ”They come past so fast it is scary. Someone will get killed.”
The 50-year-old rightwinger, who has made no secret of his presidential ambitions, has broken many taboos of French politics, favouring positive discrimination and reworking the 100-year-old law on secularism.
Those who run France’s multimillion-euro ski industry have not been unanimous in their support for Sarkozy’s plan for piste police. Jacques Guillot, mayor of Chamrousse, high in the Alps among some of the biggest ski stations, said: ”There are no hooligans on the slopes, just people who should be called to order. And a repressive approach is not necessarily best.” — Guardian Unlimited Â