Racism row over 'white as snow' Miss France contestants ends with mixed race competitor taking the crown
- Flora Coquerel, whose mother is Beninese, was crowned on Saturday night
- Pageant president Alain Delon quit in October amid claims show was racist
- Show has also been marred by his decision to join France's National Front
- Coquerel, 19, said: 'I am very proud to represent a cosmopolitan France'
- There is also anger that there are not enough Muslims in the contest
By PETER ALLEN
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A racism row surrounding the Miss France beauty contest has ended with a Franco-Benise student winning the competition and today insisting that the country was happily ‘mixed’.
Flora Coquerel, a 19-year-old whose mother is from the West African state of Benin, was crowned on live television on Saturday night.
It follows accusations that all the contestants were ‘as white and snow’ and chief judge, movie star Alain Delon, joining the anti-immigration National Front.
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Mixed France: Flora Coquerel, a 19-year-old whose mother is from the West African state of Benin, was crowned on live television on Saturday night (left). Pictured for the first time since her historic win today (right), she spoke of her pride
Multicultural: Miss Coquerel's win follows accusations that all the contestants were 'as white and snow' and chief judge, movie star Alain Delon, joining the anti-immigration National Front
People's favourite: Ms Coquerel was voted Miss France 2014 by a combination of votes from the TV audience and a celebrity jury
Delon quit as the lifetime president of the beauty pageant in October when people said the contest was increasingly reflecting the inherent racism in French society.
But Ms Coquerel said: ‘I am very proud to represent a cosmopolitan France. It shows that today's France is a mixed France, where there is every culture, and I think a lot of people will see themselves in me.’
Ms Coquerel was voted Miss France 2014 by a combination of votes from the TV audience and a celebrity jury.
Proud: Ms Coquerel said she was 'very proud to represent a cosmopolitan France.... It shows that today's France is a mixed France, where there is every culture, and I think a lot of people will see themselves in me'
Last year Louis-Georges Tin, the president of CRAN (Representative Council of Black Associations), said there were not enough black contestants.
Mr Tin said: ‘The failure to represent the contemporary French population in an event such as this is obviously serious. It amounts to denying the very existence of French people of African origin.
‘In the antiquated world of Miss France, blacks apparently can only come from overseas departments’.
There was also anger expressed at the lack of Muslim contestants in the contest, especially as there are more than six million Muslims living in France.
Marred: The competition has also been marred by the decision by its president and chief judge, movie star Alain Delon (left), joining the anti-immigration National Front, whose founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen (right), is a convicted racist and anti-Semite
Last month black justice minister Christiane Taubira was taunted with bananas, leading to black newsreader Harry Roselmack saying ‘racist France is back’. The National Front is enjoying huge success in polls, and is predicted to win almost a quarter of the national vote in European elections next year.
This is despite its anti-immigration agenda, and the fact that its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is a convicted racist and anti-Semite. In 1998 Le Pen expressed annoyance that a mixed race France football team won the World Cup in Paris. Others claimed the victory proved the country was a ‘rainbow nation’, but four years later Le Pen came runner-up in the presidential elections.
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