The French debate on national identity

An article today in the Guardian about the great French debate on national identity, launched by President Sarkozy last autumn. Across France people are being asked to come up with their ideas of what is 'French' in response to an increasing unease  - and clear difficulties - in integrating communities from the country's former colonies in north Africa.
The author, Pascal Blanchard - like many French people -  has grave doubts about the wisdom of artificially constructing notions of national identity in this way.  He is a member of Towards a Real Debate, a collective founded in response to the the official debate.
Not exactly connected - but this makes me think of the great debate over the supermodel Ines de la Fressange, who was chosen to model for a new, official, statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic in the late 1980s.
Fressange, with her perfect bone structure, aristocratic upbringing (daughter of a marquis), was considered perfect for the part.
However -  Karl Lagerfield at Chanel, the haut couturier who employed her, thought otherwise. They parted company, with Lagerfield saying he thought Marianne was a symbol of French provincialism and he refused to dress something so bourgeois and vulgar.
(Talk of Ines de la Fressange always cheers me up - she is living proof that is is possible to look impossibly chic at the age of 52).