K ärcher (to clean; French political verb for ghetto cleaning)

[Nathalie M=?ISO-8859-1?B?6A==?=ge]

"Nettoyer au Kärcher" doesn't imply ethnic cleansing in French. It is just
a standard, familiar phrase for "clean thouroughly".

Sarkozy said he wanted to clean up thoroughly "la racaille" (the thugs) from
the hood. People did hear racist subtones in this ­ but as a former Ministre
de l'Intérieur and a current presidential candidate in a country where overt
racism can lead you to jail, Sarkozy is careful not to use any expression
that would have him sued by the State or anti-racist organizations.

The supposed racist overtones/predicate were with the conjoint use of "la
racaille", which is now a slang term. It does have racist overtones when
used by the extreme right (and Sarkozy is a right-wing candidate accused of
trying to seduce extreme right voters). (While the German origin of the term
"Kärcher" seem to please some of the extreme right.)

Nathalie Mege

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