Luc Chatel le roi du bidonnage à la une... du New-York Times. TROP FORT ! Laughing Out Loud !
PARIS — It was apparently just a little summertime spinning with the aid of a grocery chain, but Luc Chatel, the education minister and government spokesman, found himself in some hot water over a supposedly staged visit to a quiet supermarket on Monday.
Journalists accompanying Mr. Chatel and Hervé Novelli, the secretary of state for commerce, on a trip to an Intermarché supermarket in Villeneuve-le-Roi, southeast of Paris, became suspicious when the aisles were suddenly filled with well-dressed, articulate women eager to praise a government freeze on the price of some school supplies before the new school year began.
One of the women was Virginie Meyniel, a local politician allied with the governing center-right party, who said she just happened to be in the store and also happens to help oversee schools for her town, Vulaines-sur-Seine, 30 miles away.
The radio station France Inter raised questions, and the newspaper Libération had a detailed article on Wednesday headlined, “Supercherie au Supermarché,” or "Hoax at the Supermarket". It described how some of the women left the store together in a car after the minister left, without buying anything and leaving their school supplies in shopping baskets.
The journalists said that the store was empty a half-hour before the officials arrived, and that 15 minutes before they came about a dozen women entered the store together.
A television reporter told Libération that the women “grabbed some items in the school supplies aisle, but instead of continuing their shopping, they stayed there, waiting like a row of onions.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Intermarché issued a statement saying that “the management of Intermarché took the initiative to invite a certain number of workers for the ministers’ visit.”
In the statement, Intermarché apologized for the episode, saying that it took full responsibility and that the ministers were not involved.
Mr. Chatel said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the plan.
PARIS — It was apparently just a little summertime spinning with the aid of a grocery chain, but Luc Chatel, the education minister and government spokesman, found himself in some hot water over a supposedly staged visit to a quiet supermarket on Monday.Journalists accompanying Mr. Chatel and Hervé Novelli, the secretary of state for commerce, on a trip to an Intermarché supermarket in Villeneuve-le-Roi, southeast of Paris, became suspicious when the aisles were suddenly filled with well-dressed, articulate women eager to praise a government freeze on the price of some school supplies before the new school year began.
One of the women was Virginie Meyniel, a local politician allied with the governing center-right party, who said she just happened to be in the store and also happens to help oversee schools for her town, Vulaines-sur-Seine, 30 miles away.
The radio station France Inter raised questions, and the newspaper Libération had a detailed article on Wednesday headlined, “Supercherie au Supermarché,” or "Hoax at the Supermarket". It described how some of the women left the store together in a car after the minister left, without buying anything and leaving their school supplies in shopping baskets.
The journalists said that the store was empty a half-hour before the officials arrived, and that 15 minutes before they came about a dozen women entered the store together.
A television reporter told Libération that the women “grabbed some items in the school supplies aisle, but instead of continuing their shopping, they stayed there, waiting like a row of onions.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Intermarché issued a statement saying that “the management of Intermarché took the initiative to invite a certain number of workers for the ministers’ visit.”
In the statement, Intermarché apologized for the episode, saying that it took full responsibility and that the ministers were not involved.
Mr. Chatel said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the plan.
Steven Erlanger, 19 août 2009
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