Socialist leader Aubry carpeted

SOCIALIST Party leader Martine Aubry has won the annual Carpette Anglaise “award” for disservice to the French language, for allegedly using slogans such “What would Jaurès do?”

The phrase compares a revered Socialist MP, assassinated in 1914, with one favoured by US evangelicals, “What would Jesus do?”

The Carpette award is made annually by a panel of French language lovers, upset at the encroachment of English (carpette means “doormat”).

Aubry is also accused of using the word “care” for her social policies.

Runner-up was the commander of the French army, General Hervé Charpentier, for saying: “There is no doubt about it: the only possible working language [in the army] is English.”

A Special Foreign Prize was awarded to the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagamé, for having withdrawn from the International Organisation of La Francophonie (which builds links between French-speaking nations) and joined the Commonwealth.

Carpette spokesman Marc Favre d’Echallens said: “We were almost unanimous in choosing Aubry, because she continually uses English slogans. Maybe she took her inspiration from Obama’s campaign. The general’s remarks were pretty excessive, too, all the more so because the army recently printed a document for its troops, explaining why we are fighting, that is only in English. It is quite astonishing.”