After nearly three weeks of silence when France was in a desperate time of need for leadership, President Chirac finally made a speech on television outlining his plan for solving the root problems that caused the violent suburban riots. He spoke bluntly of France’s problem with racism, a change of political discourse quite refreshing, but failed completely to recommend fundamental changes to the French social model. Instead of proposals to officially acknowledge the existence of racial demographics and create the economic conditions by which opportunity and growth can occur, he has proposed that the model for integration should remain unchanged. This is, undoubtedly, a losing strategy.

PARIS President Jacques Chirac acknowledged that almost three weeks of rioting in France had revealed a “profound malaise” in the country, and he pledged to combat discrimination and to work for greater ethnic diversity in all spheres of society.

In his first formal address to the country since the violence erupted Oct. 27, Chirac stressed Monday that fully restoring security remained his priority and said he would ask the National Assembly to extend the current state of emergency for three months.

“We will respond by being firm, by being fair and by being faithful to the values of France,” Chirac said, adding that the “first necessity” was to re-establish public order. “Violence never solves anything,” he said.

His 15-minute televised address focused on spelling out the longstanding problems of discrimination and mass unemployment that afflict many of those living in the poor suburbs that have been the scene of rioting.

Chirac stopped short of proposing American-style affirmative action to aid minorities, which are anathema in the French tradition of integration.

“There is no question to enter into the logic of quotas,” Chirac said.

But he said he would lobby companies, the media and political parties to increase representation of France’s urban ethnic minorities.

“These events bear witness of a profound malaise, a crisis of meaning, reference points and of identity,” he said.

He added: “It is the duty of the republic to give everybody the same opportunities. Discrimination saps the very foundation of our republic.”

In an attempt to curb the high rates of unemployment, which disproportionately affect the children of immigrants, Chirac said he would establish a voluntary task force to train about 50,000 youths by 2007 in jobs with the military, the police, and in health and culture, among other areas.

But at a time when some French politicians, like Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, have called for affirmative action, Chirac has launched a defense of France’s color-blind model of integration.

It seems to me that Chirac, by being out of the game for so long, has completely lost the plot.

While he makes the correct notion that racial discrimination by employers in terms of hiring is something that needs to be policed, he cannot possibly hope to make companies and organizations “reflect” the diversity of France simply by his decree. Indeed, a perfectly qualified candidate whose parents are Algerian shouldn’t be turned down for that simple fact, but it remains that a person of that background, due to France’s highly immobile society, is more likely to be unqualified for higher-level positions. The government can force companies not to discriminate, but it can’t force them to hire unqualified candidates.

By continuing to refuse to change the French way of thinking about problems, the problems will never get solved. Chirac refuses to collect racial demographic information, data that would greatly enhance the government’s ability to address the problem. He says that affirmative action based on race is illogical. But did he ever consider that affirmative action based on economics would have similar effects, due to these immigrants generally being poor, but wouldn’t be discriminatory? These kids have to be trained and educated in order to get jobs at all, and then they have to know that the training won’t go to waste simply because of negative discrimination.

But Chirac continues to rely on the cumbersome burden of the state instead of the potential of the markets by creating 50,000 new civil service jobs for youths from poor neighborhoods. This is not new thinking. Everytime France has an employment problem, the state fills the gap but never solves the problem. Why not deregulate small business and labor, lower taxes, and encourage trade ties with the countries that these immigrants originate and maintain connections with? It would provide ample opportunity and naturally decrease the unemployment rate, leading to greater prosperity and less unrest in the lower fringes of French society.

France doesn’t need more of the same. It can’t just rely on the bloated bureaucracy, throw money at problems, and prescribe to erroneous models of integration. It has already thrown $40 billion into run-down neighborhoods and development programs since 2000, and to no benefit. What now, then? It all comes down to a lack of opportunity, a deficit caused by an overreaching state-based social model that has failed time and time again. France doesn’t need that. It needs new thinking. Otherwise, as Chirac has personally demonstrated, the French model will continue to break down.