#3 JFM is more savy and credible than me in political analysis (I don't vote because I'm fed up with all theses inept liars, I just started back voting against the Eu constitution), but...
I don't like Sarko, he's part and parcel of the system, and he's a double-talker from my pov.
"Tuff on immigration"?
He abolished the "double-peine", the expulsion of foreign criminals, something even the left hadn't dared to do, and he bragged about it (the talk about expelling the foreigners caught during the november francifada was just that, all talk, he knew none could be expelled, and none were); he proposes letting foreigners vote in local elections; the communist paper "L'Humanité" revealed he was in secret deals with "antiracist" ngo and pro-illegals orgs to manage the illegals in France.
Also, IMHO, he's very pro-islam, that may have changed, as the climate is into "islamophobia" on the french street, I'd say.
Sarko IS ambitious... true, he's more "free market" and atlantist than the rest of the "conservatives", not hard, (there are simply no conservative mvt in France, after all, its head for the last 30 years has been Yaouled Shiraq, a crypto-leftist who only acted like a rightwinger when it suited him), but when in was industry minister, he was a colbertist, not a free-market proponent (prices control isn't exactly free-market).
Apparently, he's accepted the "inevitable" mutation of France into a multiculturalist country with several "communities", àla USA, and hope to use this to enable him to be president.
On one hand he's flirting with the Le Pen's electorate, on the other he's hoping to get the muslim vote. Fat chances, after the "Sarkozy sale juif!" of november, and the "racaille" (scum) libel (he didn't actually say it, it was a tv edit, either on behalf of Galouzeau "de Villepin", or because of the channel's bias against him... after all, he's what passes for rightwing in this country).
That's my take on him.
In 2007, I guess I'll most probably vote for Philippe de Villiers (conservative christian who openly talks about the rapid islamization of France), though I'm not even sure he's truly divorced from the Establishment. Not even my first choice...
If nothing else, I'll vote for Le Pen, but while I kinda like the character (he's the useful scapegoat of the french political landscape, used by Establishment pols to legitimate their power, he's a tool, and he knows and profits from it... but he's also a Loki-like "trickster" entity), I really disagree with his statist proposals (his tax cuts are good, though) and many of his opinions (like antisemitism).
So far, to me de villiers is the most acceptable conservative, but he won't win, it will be a socialist, I'd venture. Who knows?
Note : if Sarko is elected, or perhaps even simply goes to the second turn, one might expect new "troubles" from the youths... and the same, in worse, for de Villiers et pépé Le Pen.
A very critical "islamophobic" collection of articles about Sarko, in french :
http://www.france-echos.com/zone.php?cle=179 |
France got its clearest look yet at the man who would be its next president, as Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called Thursday for sweeping changes in the way France — and the European Union — operates. Stopping short of announcing his candidacy for next year's presidential election, the ambitious interior minister said his aim was to "embody the future." He marked a clear break with President Jacques Chirac's style of governance, asking whether the presidency had become "archaic." He held up a vision of a re-styled seat of power to narrow the credibility gap between old guard polticians and the people.