This is the price no one wants to receive. Each year, it “rewards” the determination of French and international elites to promote English to the detriment of the French language. This year, the English Carpet jury, meeting at Lipp on December 14, awarded its prize to the French Development Agency (AFD).
This organization responsible for implementing France’s development aid and its general director, Mr. Rémy Rioux, were particularly noted for the titles in English that they gave to events intended for French-speaking Africa, likeAFD Invitation Research conversations and even the AFD party bearing the title Let’s start together – The party.
In December 2022, during a conference on the theme of “sustainability”, the Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne had to translate his communication into English, although it was written in French, so that it could be retranslated into French by the interpreter. The quotes from one of the fathers of the Francophonie Léopold Sédar Senghor were also translated into the language of Shakespeare to be immediately retranslated into that of Molière. Remember that, according to the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), 60% of the 321 million French speakers in the world are in Africa.
The special foreign prize was awarded to the Minister of the Budget, Civil Service and the Promotion of Multilingualism of the Brussels-Capital Region, Sven Gatz. The latter proposed, on June 6, 2023, to make English the third administrative language of the Brussels region after French and Flemish. It is an idea defended for years by the Flemish liberal party, the Open vld, which has long fought the influence of French in the Belgian and European capital, a city which was predominantly Flemish in the 19th century.e century.
The jury chaired by the Gaullist Philippe de Saint Robert notably brought together the essayist Paul-Marie Coûteaux, the writer Benoît Duteurtre, the former high-ranking civil servant Albert Salon and the linguist Marie Treps. Several associations for the defense of the French language are also members, such as Avenir de la langue française (ALF), Défense de la langue française (DLF) or the Literary Circle of Railway Writers (CLEC).