Brussels, 29/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting with the press on the fringe of the Justice/Home Affairs Council, French Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement clarified his views on the ideas outlined by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on the future of Europe (see EUROPE of 24 May, p. 5) and commented on the quick reaction to his remarks in France. Explicitly incriminating former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (accusing him of "manipulating his remarks"), Mr Chevènement said this incident was "a real trap", and he regretted in passing that "certain media" had become involved. "Is a reference to history and Nazism indecent, an attack on the politically correct", he asked, going on to note that Germany, "because of its past, has a tendency to seek evasion in post-nationalism", whereas he refuses to believe that the nation is an "archaic concept". Mr Chevènement added: "It is by changing the concept of nation that Germany will help Europe assert itself". And this country has started doing so with its adoption of a "new law on nationality based on lex loci".