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It is with anger that I want to cry out today, a cry of rage, a cry of disgust, I have been particularly shocked, and tough luck if he finds my attitude lacking in fraternal spirit, by the discourse of M. Stephane Guillon who allowed himself last Monday to compare the Minister Eric Besson to a mole, working for the National Front, with a receding chin and a stoat’s shifty eyes. Yes M. Guillon believed himself to be authorised to treat a minister of the republic as a mole and a stoat!
Je suis scandalisé. Je voudrais présenter, au nom de Radio France, toutes mes excuses auprès de toutes les taupes, de toutes les fouines, auditrices de France Inter, qui auraient pu se sentir blessées de se trouver ainsi associées à un personnage aussi contestable que M. Eric Besson.
I am scandalised. I would like to present, in the name of France Inter, my sincere apologies on behalf of all the moles and stoats, listeners to France Inter, who would have felt wounded to find themselves associated with such a controversial figure as M. Eric Besson.
Je voudrais profiter de cette intervention matinale pour rendre un hommage vibrant aux taupes aux fouines qui sont sur le sol français, quelquefois sous le sol français, et qui n’ont certainement pas méritées de subir un tel affront.
I would like to take the opportunity this morning to pay heartfelt homage to the moles and stoats who, are living on the soil of France, sometimes under the soil of France, and who have certainly not deserved to suffer such an affront.
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Moles are small burrowing mammals that often live in deplorable and difficult conditions. In damp and loose soil, sometimes in danger for their health, they pass their lives, despite a particularly handicapping short sightedness, in digging tunnels methodically with courage and determination; show themselves by making small mounds of earth called molehills. I fail to see in what way their self-effacing and hard working lifestyle has any relation to the person who today, at the heart of the republican right has succeeded in popularising the ideas of the National Front, by putting at the front of the stage, the party of Jean Marie Le Pen. I just don’t see it!
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I would also like to bring to mind the often difficult fate of stoats who, in addition, and I state it with regret M Demarrand I say to you in passing, are not often invited to the microphones of France Inter. The stoat is often criticised, they are considered opportunistic, is that what M. Guillon wanted to underline in comparing them to M. Besson. Well, I will be the advocate for the stoat to say that; YES they are capable of slaughter in the hen house; YES they can do damage inside houses, especially by attacking the electrical circuits; but one must not forget, M. Guillon, which you have too great a tendency to do, that since the romantic period, the stoat has by destroying rats, played the role of sanitary policeman, a role often not recognised or rewarded M. Guillon, often tedious, disgusting and repugnant. A role that few of our contemporaries would have the energy or mental determination to do!
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I also remark that M. Guillon has never had the courage to speak to moles and stoats face to face, to look them in the eyes in a fair and equal contest. You can perhaps retort that the idea of a debate between a stoat and a humorist is perfectly absurd, but not more so than that between a humorist and a politician in power.
La prochaine fois je prendrai la défense des ragondins, des martres, des belettes, des loutres, des furets et surtout des putois, qui toute leur vie connaissent la douloureuse humiliation d’entendre des réflexions aussi désagréables que « qu’est ce que ça pue ! »
The next time I will take on the defence of coypu, martens, weasels, otters, ferrets and above all skunks, who all their lives know the painful humiliation of hearing remarks like” how it stinks!”