Eric Cantona presidency stunt highlights French housing crisis
Tuesday, 10 January 2012 3:24 PM
Reports that Eric Cantona is standing to be French president are wide of the mark, but he is instead looking to highlight a growing housing crisis in France.
The former Manchester United footballer, known as "King Eric" to fans, was pictured on the front of French newspaper Libération asking for 500 mayors' signatures, the symbolic amount needed to launch a presidency bid.
However it has since emerged that the footballer turned movie star is engaged in a publicity stunt to help highlight a housing crisis which leading charity Fondation Abbé-Pierre says is affecting over 10 million French people.
They estimate that a lack of social housing means some 3.5 million people are living in poor or unfit conditions.
Libération's deputy editor, Paul Quinio, said: "He isn't looking for signatures to be a candidate for the presidency, but to pass on the message of the Abbé Pierre foundation in support of better housing policy, and to make housing, which is a priority for French people, a priority for the presidential candidates."
Cantona, who famously kung-fu kicked a Crystal Palace supporter during his time in English football but was also voted Manchester United's greatest ever player, described himself as a "concerned citizen of our time".
He added: "I want to offer an opportunity to young people, whose choices are too limited, too unjust, too brutal and systematic.
"This commitment demands that I speak up, more seriously than usual, with a keen sense of my responsibility as a citizen at a time when our country is faced with difficult choices and is determining its future."
The international coverage of Cantona's intervention goes some way to showing its value and the profile he is able to bring to social housing issues.
Patrick Doutreligne of the Fondation Abbé-Pierre confirmed that Cantona does not actually expect or want to be the next president of France.
Doutreligne said: "He will indeed seek 500 signatures, not for the election but to make sure that housing is a priority. You need a spur like Cantona to give housing the place it deserves in this campaign".
France's social housing problem has been growing in recent years. Michel Sapin, a spokesman for Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande, estimates that around 150,000 social housing units need to be built per year if France is to begin to deal with the problem.
However, he questioned Cantona's methods of getting the point across.
This is not the first time Cantona has intervened politically; in 2010 he called on French citizens to withdraw their money from banks as a punishment for the financial crisis, prompting widespread criticism.
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