May 4, 2007
W WINS:
France heads to right as political showman delivers final performance of campaign (Angelique Chrisafis, May 5, 2007, Guardian)
Mr Sarkozy, 52, now seems unstoppable in his 30-year dream to lead France. More than 100 opinion polls have tipped him to win. Despite his critics' cries that he is a US-style neo-conservative, a racist authoritarian, and a volatile power-freak with a complex about his height, who poses on a horse to look like Napoleon charging into battle, Mr Sarkozy is coasting on the highest support of any politician in France for decades. [...]For "Sarko l'américain", who believes in a "French dream" inspired by US-style meritocratic hope - where those who work hard are rewarded, where children sing the anthem with hand on heart and a name like "Schwarzenegger" is no bar to success - it was symbolic that he staged his last rally in Montpellier, known as the "French California".
It wasn't enough to overthrow the French client in Iraq, now France itself begins to Anglicize? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 4, 2007 7:44 PM
It's funny. His family antecedents are clearly Hungarian, but "they" pronounce his name with a French accent which would make the name a scatological insult in his "native" land. And, on his mother's side, at least, I think he's part Jewish. I hope he wins. He could be good for France on so many levels.
Posted by: HT at May 4, 2007 11:21 PMWe'll see how far he can get against the combined weight of the bureaucracy, unions, teachers, students, and thugs in the slums. That's a big percentage of modern France. There will be strikes and riots, as Royal warned/threatened. But I wish him luck.
Posted by: PapayaSF at May 5, 2007 1:21 AM