sarko_le_grand

Birthday greetings

2009-11-14T16:09:45Z

Joyeux anniversaire, Dominique. Je ... well, you know without my saying it, don't you?

groans

2009-04-28T19:05:40Z

Enough is enough! Haven't the British papers anything better to do than publish stories about us?!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6168701.ece

Further message to Dominique

2009-04-28T17:08:19Z

Perhaps you and Jacques can have adjoining cells.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/5230044/Jacques-Chirac-could-face-embezzlement-trial.html

Speechless with rage

2009-04-28T16:58:04Z

Merde! Merdemerdemerdemerdemerde!!!!!!!!!!!

Dominique, if I find out you're behind this breakin or any of the others, Clearstream is going to seem like one of your Alpine picnics with Silvio compared to what's in store for you! I'm warning you!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1174221/Highly-intimate-photos-video-Carla-Bruni-ex-lover-stolen-Paris-flat.html

Sarko I

2008-07-10T13:42:42Z

I haven't posted here for a long time, but, unlike Dominique, who, when he's not talking to prosecutors, has lots of free time, I have been busy with the following:

running the country (France)

my beautiful young wife (use your imagination)

planning my new royal palace (Sarko I sounds nice!)

personally saving Ingrid Betancourt singlehandedly (Super Sarko to the rescue!)

NOT breaking into my ~~dead~~ dear opponent Ségolène's house to intimidate her (why waste my time on such a has-been?)

thinking of new ways to revive my brilliant plans for ~~world domination~~ the Mediterranean Union despite the jealous opposition of that woman in Berlin, whose country won't be allowed to join. (but now the EU is mine, and I can do whatever I want with it, so there, Angie!)

More later but Carlita is calling.

Dear Dominique...

2008-06-05T18:32:05Z

I've been trying to think of a way of thanking you for that oh-so-amusing April Fool's Day post you wrote in my name. Carlita and I read it in bed as we were relaxing from ... other things. (She says to tell you, by the way, that you should make an appointment to have your vision checked, because clearly you have a problem judging the true size of things.)

In any case, mon cher ami, I came across an article in an old issue of the Financial Times that I thought might interest you, since it talks about the special friendship between two of your favourite politicians. The writer of course says it's business ties that link them, but perhaps there's more to it than that. What do you think?

On the face of it, Silvio Berlusconi and Vladimir Putin scarcely look like natural bedfellows.

Italy's prime minister-elect is a rightwing, pro-US billionaire media and property magnate, better known for his cheap humour and political gaffes than for serious policy formulation. The Russian president - and prime minister in waiting - is supremely controlled, a cautious bureaucrat by instinct, who has restored the power of the Kremlin at the expense of some powerful business oligarchs and revived national pride by acting as a counterweight to US global influence.

Yet the two have forged an extraordinary friendship ever since they first met in 2001. Both put great store on personal chemistry in their relationships and both tend to be seen as outsiders, regarded with suspicion by other leaders. So it is scarcely a surprise that Mr. Putin made sure he was the first to stop by Mr. Berlusconi's luxury villa in Sardinia yesterday to congratulate him on his re-election.

It is not the first time the Russian leader has been there. He came with his wife Lyudmila in 2003, and sent his daughters Masha and Katya back for a two-week summer holiday.

He has invited Mr. Berlusconi back to his Black Sea holiday home in Sochi. Last year in St. Petersburg they attended a martial arts competition with Jean-Claude van Damme, the Belgian B-film actor - just as Russian riot police were breaking up an opposition demonstration in Moscow. It did not appear to bother Mr. Berlusconi.

They share more in their political style than one might expect: both like to shock, Mr. Berlusconi with crude jokes and Mr. Putin with crude language. Both are small men, vain about their appearance, who have ruled their countries through tight-knit groups of confidants.

But it is not just style that unites them. It is business.

It is not by chance that Mr. Putin is dropping in on Sardinia on return from a trip to Libya, where he signed deals for arms sales and energy links. The Russian president is as much chief executive of Russia Inc., and the guiding force behind Gazprom, the gas monopoly, as he is a national leader. For Mr. Berlusconi, politics is about doing business. Thanks to their personal ties, they have encouraged vital business links, especially in the energy sector.

Gazprom and Eni, the 30 per cent state-owned Italian energy group, are partners in the giant South Stream natural gas pipeline project intended to deliver 30bn cubic metres of Siberian gas a year to Italy, via the Black Sea and the Balkans. In Washington, and to many in Brussels, the pipeline is seen as a dangerous move to increase the dependence of the European Union on Russian energy supplies. To Mr. Putin and Mr. Berlusconi, it is just good business.

Eni and Enel, the Italian electricity group, are partners with Gazprom in exploiting the gas fields they bought at the bankruptcy auction of Yukos, the company owned by the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Enel has also acquired a controlling stake in OGK-5, a privatised power generation company, and plans to spend 2bn euros ($3.2bn, £1.6bn) in Russia building a vertically-integrated energy combine.

Now Gazprom has announced it wants to become a partner in Eni's gas pipeline from Libya, where the Russian giant signed on Wednesday a joint venture agreement with the Libyan national oil company. Gazprom is also discussing an exchange of assets with Eni, giving Eni more Russian involvement in exchange for Italian interests in Libya.

That is just in the energy sector. Italy cannot compete with Germany in its absolute levels of trade and investment in Russia. But thanks to the Berlusconi-Putin relationship, it is seen in the Kremlin as the most reliable business partner. No wonder Mr. Putin has rushed to shake hands with his best friend in Sardinia.

I Resign

2008-04-01T13:38:08Z

Hello. My name is Nicolas Sarkozy. I am a very irritating short little man. I am useless in bed and have a very very tiny thingie. The only thing I can do well is commit treachery. In fact I am very good at that.

Recently I have become aware that my qualities and qualifications (I was too stupid to go to the ENA) make me unsuited for the post of President of La Republique. I am now resigning. I do not intend to call an election. Instead I will hand the job over to my ex-friend Dominique, whom I wicked and callously betrayed, and if it weren't for that treachery, I'm sure he would have had the job anyway. I also want to apologize to Dominique for persecuting him in Clearstream. In truth I love you, my friend, but persecution and hatred was the only way for me to deal with my unrequited lust for you.

I would also like to apologize to Carla for not being able to satisfy her in bed because I have such a tiny thingie.

That is all.

Yours sincerely,

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nigeria?

2008-02-07T00:31:47Z

You're going to Lagos, Dominique, to speak at an awards ceremony? Nigeria is suspiciously close to Chad, wouldn't you agree? I hope you aren't planning anything that the government will later have to disavow. No one's forgotten your little stunt concerning Ingrid, you know.

I see that THISDAY ONLINE gives you all of three sentences, while John Howard gets ... well, look for yourself. Not very flattering, is it? Do you think you're already being forgotten?

groans

2007-12-07T19:46:41Z

Mother, please. This kind of thing isn't particularly helpful. Don't you know how people are going to seize on it and use it to ridicule me?

And another thing. Just when did I become your favourite son?

She's just a talented member of my team

2007-11-26T22:48:11Z

I fail to see what all the fuss is about.

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2007/11/post-2.html

What's next ... Satan putting in a good word for God?

2007-11-26T22:36:04Z

Why, thank you, Dominique.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2932903.ece

I suppose you thought I'd forget

2007-11-14T13:06:55Z

Proving once again that I'm a bigger man than you are (and you can take it any way you like *smirk*), let me add my wishes for a Joyeux Anniversaire! to the others you've already received. I suppose you're planning a day en famille with Marie-Laure and the children, but why don't you stop by the Elysée later this evening and we'll toast your health with champagne. Tell Marie-Laure we have things to discuss (the word "Clearstream" ought to do it), and plan to stay the night. There are bedrooms to spare here, as you well know.

Putin has humiliated you, and Berlusconi's far away. Come and test yourself against me, mon cher, mon frère.

Merde!

2007-10-18T16:12:59Z

Just because I haven't posted recently doesn't mean that all of you, all my dear friends and well-wishers (*twisted smile*) aren't often in my thoughts. Dominique, at the very least, deserves special notice for the role he's undertaken (unasked) as my conscience. (I look forward to a long, forceful, intimate discussion with you about this, mon cher ami.) Of course, some people would say Dominique's really in no position to pontificate on any one else, given his own personal and professional record, but I'm not going to get into that here. Just remember, cher ami, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

As for my marriage, all of you ~~vultures~~ can just go ~~fuck yourselves~~ find something else to worry about. Let's see, there's the Russian and Iranian presidents making nice together. Or how about Turkey thinking about invading Iraq? Maybe we all should be worrying about what happens if Turkey moves against the Kurds and George has to choose between two allies.

Dear Ségolène....

2007-09-22T17:06:18Z

I know how much it will gall you that I've remembered (did François, I wonder?), so let me be one of the first to wish you Bon Anniversaire! Any special plans for the day? A quiet dinner en famille, perhaps? A little television and then warm milk and an early night?

2014 Olympics

2007-07-05T21:57:38Z

Sochi? Sochi?!? I don't believe it. Who did you have to bribe, Vlad, and how much did it cost you?

I AM NOTHING LIKE BERLUSCONI !!!!!!!

2007-06-09T00:15:55Z

*is livid*

*wants to smash something, like the author's head*

http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5838&Itemid=84

The two of you are giving me a headache

2007-05-18T19:05:51Z

Dieu! Maybe I should find places for both of you in my government so you'd have something useful to do instead of spending your time inventing more and more outrageous lies. The pair of you are worse than Louis!

Ségolène, I can categorically state that if you or anyone else holding a whip, riding crop, or blindfold cornered Dominique, any fantasies of a ~~sexual encounter~~ romantic interlude would soon disappear. Believe me, you don't want to see what would happen. You're like a little child paddling happily in the water, not realising that a crocodile is lying at the bottom of the pool, just waiting to be awakened by your splashing. Maybe you should come pay me a visit at the Elysée one day and take a tour of one or two of the lesser-known ... special-purpose ... rooms that Jacques had fitted out.

As for you, Dominique, you're as much of a liar as she is. The shower, mon cher ami? Somehow I don't think so.

Disgusted with the whole lot of you

2007-05-16T05:23:41Z

*weary disgust* Well, I see it's business as usual for both the UMP and the PS.

I'm coming into office with the goal of moving beyond partisan politics. I want to overcome divisions that no longer make sense. For years the left has ignored the values of nation, work, and order, while the right has neglected solidarity and social justice. I intend to bridge that divide, to bring both sides together in the interest of France and her citizens.

But instead of being statesmen, our great énarques and their lesser brethren act like spoiled children. The UMP turns its collective nose up when I indicate I want to offer posts in my government to representatives of the left. "We shouldn't forget that the right won," I'm told one of them said. But the leaders of the left are just as bad. Chère Ségolène has condemned any PS member who considers joining my government. Selfish little egotistical fool, who thinks that a PS member who puts the interest of France above the interests of Madame Royal is nothing but a betrayer.

Well, let them cross me at their peril!

Financial Times article

2007-05-15T23:19:58Z

All right, go ahead and laugh at the bits you think are funny. (Ségolène and Dominique, this means you.) But just remember that as of tomorrow I'll be sitting in the Elysée with France's nuclear codes, and you won't. *takes deep breath and hits "Post"*

How ruthlessness and resilience carried Sarkozy to the Elysée

By John Thornhill and Martin Arnold

Published: May 14 2007 18:48 | Last updated: May 14 2007 18:48

On Wednesday morning, in a flurry of photographers’ flashbulbs and a frenzy of political expectation, Nicolas Sarkozy will march into the Elysée palace, passing through the Court of Honour and sweeping past a gleaming detachment of the Republican guard. There, he will be met by President Jacques Chirac, his one-time mentor turned antagonist, who will explain the inner mysteries of the presidential office and hand over the launch codes for France’s nuclear arsenal.

Later, in the festival hall, the chancellor of the Légion d’honneur will present Mr Sarkozy with the chain of the grand master of the order. After speeches from various dignitaries, the signing of the investiture statement and a 21-gun salute outside, the unlikely figure of Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa, the 52-year-old son of a Hungarian immigrant, will be officially declared president, becoming France’s elected monarch in all but name.

A small, intense and somewhat ungainly man, whose erratic movements sometimes give the impression that his limbs are under the control of a novice puppeteer, Mr Sarkozy will probably seem rather out of place amid all this pageantry, especially when standing alongside the regal Mr Chirac, 22 years his senior and almost a foot taller, who has occupied the Elysée for the past 12 years. But as Mr Sarkozy is fond of saying: “You don’t get here by accident.” His conquest of power is a remarkable personal victory and the fruition of a political ambition formed some 30 years ago.

In many respects, Mr Sarkozy’s ascent has been the classic story of a political insider who has exploited his contacts and employed the usual tricks of his trade. As a young man, Mr Sarkozy was drawn to the authoritarian figure of General Charles de Gaulle, rather than the long-haired hippies of the 1968 cultural revolution, and quickly made his rhetorical mark within the Gaullist RPR party.

Mr Sarkozy had not shone at school or university, preventing him from entering the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), the traditional nursery of the French political elite. But he soon showed his political precociousness by outmanoeuvring more senior party colleagues to be elected mayor of the swanky Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine at the age of 28. In that post, he was able to schmooze many of France’s most influential business leaders and media magnates, whom he has clung close to ever since.

He latched on to Mr Chirac, the rising rightwing star of his generation, and was swept into parliament and ministerial office on his coat tails, rising to become budget minister and government spokesman. He even started dating Mr Chirac’s daughter Claude, prompting talk of a dynastic match until the romantic liaison ended in tears. In 1993 he shot to national fame in a real-life televised drama when he personally negotiated with a hostage-taker calling himself “the human bomb”, who had stormed a kindergarten in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Mr Sarkozy’s calm intervention helped the police sneak into the school and shoot the man dead.

But, with hindsight, the making of Mr Sarkozy as a serious presidential contender occurred later in the 1990s, when he crashed off this golden escalator and was forced to re-plan his political ascent by a different route. In the 1995 presidential elections, Mr Sarkozy broke with Mr Chirac and backed the candidacy of Edouard Balladur, the then prime minister, incensing many Gaullists. Mr Sarkozy was widely viewed as a miscalculating traitor within the RPR party. He was spat on by Chirac supporters just ahead of their candidate’s surprise victory.

Attempting to rehabilitate himself, Mr Sarkozy ran the RPR’s campaign for the European elections in 1999. But the party performed disastrously, winning just 12.7 per cent of the vote. After resigning as RPR leader, Mr Sarkozy set about rethinking where he had gone wrong. His reflections, published in a book entitled Libre (Free), proved the secret of his political resurrection. In his personal manifesto, Mr Sarkozy called for a new activist way of conducting politics and urged the right to be more daring in asserting its traditional values, resisting the intellectual hegemony of the left.

“I want to believe that it is possible to conduct the political combat differently than by hollow, general and falsely consensual ideas,” he wrote. “I am convinced that social-democratic sermonising can only prosper in the absence of a modern right. We have been the craftsmen of our defeat. It is time to be the craftsmen of our revival.”

Paradoxically, Mr Sarkozy’s most durable political success came when he stopped emphasising how similar he was to the traditional political elite and began highlighting his differences. Mr Sarkozy’s political transfiguration may have been due to personal humiliation and electoral defeat. But the carefully calculating insider discovered that he had far more political appeal as a plain-speaking, risk-taking outsider.

Manuel Aeschlimann, the mayor of the nearby Parisian suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine and a parliamentary deputy, came to know Mr Sarkozy well in the late 1990s. “He changed. He drew the consequences of his defeat and became a lot more open to other people. He was less sure of himself, because he had been so detested. He listened more to others’ experiences,” Mr Aeschlimann says.

“As people began wondering about life after Chirac they began to see his talents, and his abilities, and his potential for the next presidential elections. His book Libre was a real detonator. There was a rallying around these ideas. Among the [parliamentary] deputies, they saw a real possibility for a new breath of life for the right.”

When Mr Chirac was re-elected president in 2002 and subsequently carried parliament in a landslide, many of these deputies clamoured for Mr Sarkozy to be appointed prime minister. Mr Chirac resisted and instead appointed Mr Sarkozy to the post of interior minister, one of the toughest portfolios in the government. Mr Sarkozy was disappointed; yet the ministry gave him the perfect opportunity to put his new theories into practice and engage with voters, who had stunned the political elite by sending Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, into the second round of the presidential election with 17 per cent of the vote.

Pierre Giacometti, a director at the Ipsos polling organisation, says that Mr Sarkozy’s stint as interior minister transformed his image from that of an unpopular political animal into a dynamic man of action who could respond to the voters’ disaffection. “In the history of Nicolas Sarkozy’s political life, there are two periods: before 2002 and after 2002,” Mr Giacometti says. “He became a politician who resounds in a crisis. He both represents the revolt and re-establishes order.”

As interior minister Mr Sarkozy changed the rhythm of French politics that had been set by Presidents François Mitterrand and Chirac, according to Mr Giacometti. “Mitterrand and Chirac and their prime ministers practised a policy of only appearing rarely in the media to increase the level of anticipation. The idea was that the less you spoke, the more expectation you would arouse. In France a minister would usually intervene on a subject and then disappear for a month. You almost made the office sacred,” Mr Giacometti says.

“But Sarkozy’s strategy was the reverse: to be present on the ground and to be omnipresent in the media and to say, ‘I listen, I explain, I act.’ He became a sort of political steamroller operating at a very different rhythm than was traditional in France.”

Mr Sarkozy not only transformed the style of French politics, he also revolutionised the substance of what was talked about. In common language – far removed from the traditional langue de bois (wooden speech) of the political elite – he began addressing the everyday concerns of French voters, talking about crime, security and illegal immigration, subjects that had fuelled support for Mr Le Pen.

Co-opting National Front voters was Mr Sarkozy’s most controversial political manoeuvre, a decisive break from the strategy of the party’s old guard but one that would significantly boost his chances of winning the election.

Mr Chirac had tried to marginalise the National Front, refusing to debate with Mr Le Pen before the second-round poll and rallying all sound-thinking political forces in the centre. But Mr Sarkozy took a very different approach. He made it his mission as interior minister to talk directly to National Front supporters, addressing the issues that had fuelled the massive protest vote. “It was not by demonising the National Front and saying that they were fascists or Nazis that things would get better,” says Mr Aeschlimann.

“What was important was that in the struggle against insecurity, the struggle against crime, we had pragmatic, concrete and effective solutions, and the ability to implement our ideas. It was by action, and by results, that we would be able to win back the voters of the National Front, who in the vast majority of cases were not extreme-right ideologues but simply people who were afraid for their personal safety or had first-hand experience of difficulties.”

Hard-headed political calculation also lay behind this opening to the extreme right, according to Mr Aeschlimann, who acted as Mr Sarkozy’s adviser on public opinion during the 2007 presidential election campaign. If Mr Sarkozy could secure a chunk of Mr Le Pen’s vote he would become almost impregnable in the first round of a presidential election. Such thinking shaped Mr Sarkozy’s action – and rhetoric – all the way up to the eve of the presidential poll in April 2007. His tough talk during the suburban riots in the autumn of 2005 – when he promised to cleanse the “scum” from the ghettoes with an industrial power hose – resonated with National Front supporters even if it horrified the intellectual microcosm in Paris. His proposals to create an Orwellian-sounding Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, first aired during this year’s presidential election campaign, were also targeted at voters of the hard right.

However, while interior minister and later as finance minister, Mr Sarkozy’s brazen independence and his growing popularity had unsettled many in his own political camp. Mr Chirac seemed determined to slow the rise of his one-time protégé and block him from taking control of his Gaullist party, now renamed the UMP, which could be used as a launch pad for a presidential bid. But Mr Sarkozy proved himself a resilient operator and a ruthless tactician, brushing aside all attempts to destabilise him.

Pierre Lellouche, a Paris parliamentary deputy who worked in Mr Sarkozy’s campaign team, says the secret of the new president’s success has been his “incredible power of endurance”. “He has overcome many difficulties,” says Mr Lellouche, citing his failed comeback in 1999. “It was a disaster, I remember him being whistled and booed at rallies of the RPR.”

Since then, Mr Sarkozy has fought off challenges from a string of rivals, including Alain Juppé, Mr Chirac’s dauphin and first prime minister, and Dominique de Villepin, the outgoing president’s last prime minister. “Chirac built a party – the UMP – for Juppé and Sarkozy stole it,” says Mr Lellouche. “Chirac invented Villepin to kill Sarkozy, but again he showed his incredible power of endurance.”

When Mr Juppé was forced to step down as UMP leader in 2004 after being convicted of party finance fraud, Mr Chirac tried to prevent Mr Sarkozy from taking over the party by ruling that, as a minister, he could not also be party leader – even though the president once did exactly that himself. “I decide, he executes,” declared Mr Chirac in the direction of Mr Sarkozy, who subsequently quit as finance minister and defiantly stood for the UMP leadership.

The last chance to block Mr Sarkozy from turning the UMP into his own political machine was to find a challenger. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the then prime minister, toyed with the idea of standing as a joint leader. But, according to Le Monde newspaper, Mr Chirac was unpersuaded that Mr Raffarin had the tactical skill to compete with Mr Sarkozy, telling his prime minister: “In a month, he will be eating his soup off your head.” Mr Sarkozy was elected president of the UMP with 85 per cent of the vote in November 2004. His dominance became such that even his bitterest party opponents, including Mr Chirac and Mr de Villepin, fell into line in the run-up to this year’s election.

After such bruising internal battles, the task of confronting a backward-looking and tactically maladroit Socialist candidate such as Ségolène Royal in this year’s presidential elections must have seemed relatively straightforward to Mr Sarkozy. He was undoubtedly blessed by his opposition. Ms Royal’s great strength was that she appeared to make her campaign up as she went along, giving her an air of originality and excitement. But in the latter stages of the presidential campaign her spontaneity also proved her greatest weakness, conveying an impression of chaotic unpreparedness – gleefully amplified by the media.

Opinion polls showed that voters identified Mr Sarkozy with a real political project. His campaign themes had been clear and consistent: re-energising France’s economy; rewarding hard work; cutting unemployment from more than 8 per cent to 5 per cent by the end of his five-year term; cracking down on crime and illegal immigration; tilting foreign policy towards a more pro-US position; and pushing for a more protective European Union. Mr Sarkozy triumphed, polling 53 per cent of the vote.

Patrick Ollier, speaker of the National Assembly and a Chirac supporter who rallied to Mr Sarkozy’s banner late in the day, says: “Everything comes from his passion for work. His physical engagement is incredible. For almost five years he kept up an incredible pace of rallies, speeches and interviews. He is really a top level athlete.”

Mr Ollier says he expects France’s new president to keep up his punishing pace once in office to launch the economic reforms promised during his campaign. But Mr Ollier admits there is a risk he could try to go too fast. “His main faults are also his biggest qualities. His desire to move mountains and his limitless energy must be controlled and tied into dialogue with social partners. It could create tensions if he wants to go faster than others are prepared to accept,” he says.

One close ally also worries about the risk for the president from the person closest to him: his wife Cécilia. “She is his only weak spot. If there is a risk for Sarkozy it comes from his marriage. He really loves this woman and is willing to do anything to keep her, which is very touching, but very dangerous as well,” says the ally.

Rumours have been rife about the state of Mr Sarkozy’s marriage ever since Cécilia left him in 2005 for another man. This seemed to hit Mr Sarkozy hard. His public persona became darker and more aggressive. At the time he was mocked by Mr de Villepin, who was quoted in Le Monde joking about “this man who wants to seduce the French and is not even capable of keeping his wife”.

It was during these marital difficulties that he sparked controversy with a pledge to “clean up the scum” in France’s suburban ghettos. He and Cécilia have since reunited publicly. But she was notably absent for most of the campaign. She appeared briefly when he voted in the first round and then only showed up late for the victory celebrations on election night.

Will Mr Sarkozy succeed as president? Mr Aeschlimann has few doubts. “His ideas are good. He has the dynamism to put them into practice. If Sarkozy remains the person I know, he will be a good president,” he says.

“He has left everyone in check mate, from Chirac to the centrists and the left, which puts him in an incredibly powerful position,” says Mr Lellouche. “A boulevard is opening up for him.”

Undoubtedly, Mr Sarkozy has succeeded as a politician by defining himself against his opponents. But the day has now come when he must define himself as president. It is a challenge of an altogether different magnitude, and one that has not been made any easier by the brilliant divisiveness of his campaign.

Timeline for Nicolas Sarkozy:

1955: Born in Paris

1983: Elected mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine

1988: Elected parliamentary deputy

1993-95: Budget minister

1999: Head of RPR party. Resigns after European elections

2002: Interior minister

2004: Finance minister

Nov 2004: Elected president of the UMP party

2005: Returns as interior minister

2007: Elected president

Angela, my aplogies

2007-05-14T21:56:04Z

Angie, I hope you weren't too upset that Tony paid me a courtesy call before you and I had a chance to meet. I know that traditionally the new French president meets the German chancellor before any other European leader, but I really felt I had no choice. The poor man had ~~finally~~ just announced the date of his departure, and I think he was feeling a little desperate to show that he still ~~mattered~~ had some influence. He practically begged to see me, so how could I be cruel and deny him? In any case, I knew I'd be seeing you on Wednesday, ~~just as soon as I'm sure Jacques has vacated the Elysée~~ and of course we'll be working closely together for years to come.

It's going to be a long five years

2007-05-09T22:19:27Z

*stares at newspaper headline: "Winner sails into storm of protest over use of yacht" *

Merde! Dominique, I told you the monastery was a better idea....

I have nothing to hide or to fear

2007-05-06T17:27:27Z

So, mes amis, this is what the American press is saying (The New York Times, Saturday, May 5, 2007). Criticism and praise, I accept them both.

Man French Immigrants Hate Has Strong Pro-Minority Views

By Craig S. Smith
Paris, May 4

The possible next president of France is the son of an immigrant with a very un-French name who has done as much, if not more, than any other French official to improve the status of minorities.

He knows the pain of being an outsider and even advocates American-style affirmative action, heresy for many people in officially colorblind, egalitarian France.

Yet the one place that the leading candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, has dared not go in the days before election on Sunday are the volatile working-class neighborhoods of France's second-generation immigrants, where he is largely reviled.

His opponent, Ségolène Royal of the Socialist Party, has played on fears that if Mr. Sarkozy is elected, this country's minority youths may take to the streets as they did in 2005, setting cars and buildings aflame.

On Friday she said that if he is elected, "democracy will be threatened," The Associated Press reported. She said she felt a "responsibility to raise the alert about the risks of this candidacy and the violence and brutality that will be set off in the country."

The integration of alienated, second-generation immigrant youth into mainstream French society is one of the thorniest problems facing French politics today and Mr. Sarkozy, as interior minister, tackled the problem head-on with a directness more typical of an American politician than a French one.

But his Giuliani-inspired zero-tolerance anticrime campaign, his frank, sometimes imprudent talk (tailored to attract far-right voters during an earlier stage of his campaign) and his combative style have turned him into an enemy for many young minorities. Fear that a President Sarkozy would bring five years of heightened tension and violence is an emotion operating at the core of the presidential campaign.

"There's never been a presidential election in France in which the leading candidate causes so much fear," said Kamel Chibli, who grew up in public housing projects outside Toulouse and now acts as a spolesman on minority affairs for Ms. Royal. "The future of the country is at stake."

Certainly, the hoots and jeers that Mr. Sarkozy's name brings amid the crowded high-rise apartment blocks in the Paris suburbs suggest that a Sarkozy presidency would face resistance, if not unrest. Even Mr. Sarkozy's closest supporters concede that there is likely to be some car burning if he wins the election on Sunday.

But those supporters argue that, given time, his anticrime campaign and promise of training and jobs for unemployed youths will eventually turn the tense suburbs from increasingly stagnant ghettos into peaceful pools of hope.

"If the only reason to vote for Ségo is fear of trouble in the suburbs, then democracy is in trouble," said Yves Jégo, the mayor of one immigrant-heavy northern suburb and a staunch Sarkozy supporter. Ségo is Ms. Royal's nickname.

Mr. Sarkozy himself has struggled as an outsider, describing himself as a "little French man of mixed blood" who rose to the top of French politics without going through the normal channels of the elite École Nationale d'Administration as Ms. Royal did.

His record includes a number of efforts to improve the status of he country's minorities, most of whom are Muslim. He encouraged the creation of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, which gave Islam a voice in France. He appointed the first prefect in France who is both foreign-born and Muslim. He has even argued for relaxing rules that restrict government support for building mosques.

And he supports affirmative action, which the Socialists steadfastly oppose. He has promised to find jobs for 250,000 disadvantaged youth before the end of the year.

Ms. Royal promises to reinstate neighborhood police officers and reinstate a state-financed youth employment program, both created by the former Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin and discontinued by Mr. Sarkozy. She has vowed that no young person will remain unemployed for more than six months after leaving school.

Even many of Mr. Sarkozy's critics concede that his proposals are broader and deeper than those of Ms. Royal.

"He is more concrete, more precise than the left," said Mohamed Hamidi, editor in chief of Bondy Blog, a fledgling online magazine focused on France's working-class suburbs. "But he is ready for confrontation."

Many people blame Mr.Sarkozy for the 2005 violence, citingt his tough talk and policies during four years as interior minister. Soon after getting the job in 2002, he got rid of beat police in troubled neighborhoods, chastising patrolmen in Toulouse for organizing soccer games with local youths. "You are not social workers," Mr. Sarkozy said.

His combative style exacerbated the rising tensions, even as they solidified his credentials with the far right, whose support was critical in winning the first round of voting last month.

Whlie visiting La Courneuve, a working-class suburf of Paris, after a shooting in June 2005, he vowed to clean out the suburb "with a Kärcher," the brand name for a high-powered industrial pressure washer.

He inflamed passions further a few months later by telling people in another suburb that he would rid the place of the "scum" responsible for petty crime.

The harsh language, which he and his supporters still defend, defined him as racist in the eyes of many French blacks and Arabs who were already bristling from the police spot checks that came with the anticrime campaign.

When two youths were accidentally electrocuted while fleeing police officers two days after his "scum" remark, working-class neighborhoods across the country erupted in an unprecedented wave of urban unrest that was largely a response to Mr. Sarkozy and his tough tactics.

While Mr. Sarkozy has moderated his language and struck a more conciliatory tone in the presidential campaign, he didn't help matters by proposing last year that France have a ministry of immigration and national identity to ensure that new citizens adhere to France's secular values.

To many people in the suburbs, the idea seemed like a way to suppress cultural differences in favor of a traditional French way of life.

Since the 2005 violence, Mr. Sarkozy has been unwelcome in the suburbs. He made only one visit to a troubled neighborhood during the campaing, a brief, tightly controlled trip to the suburb of Meaux, where he bore the heckles and harangus of angry citizens in a closed meeting with more than 300 police officers posted outside.

But Mr. Sarkozy's supporters say that the law-and-order drive and social programs, in time, will have a deeper impact on the stagnation in the suburbs, which they blame on 20 years of Socialist Party policies.

"You have to be firm with people who interfere with other people's lives," said Taymir Boungou-Pouaty, as he watched a handful of police officers interene to stop a fight outside La Courneuve's notorious "city of 4,000" housing projects, so named because it includes about 4,000 apartments. "You can't coddle them."

Mr. Boungou-Pouaty, an immigrant from Congo, was one of the handful to benefit from Mr. Sarkozy's 2005 visit to the suburbs. He was hired by a French company as part of Mr. Sarkozy's affirmative action plan and is now a volunteer in Mr. Sarkozy's campaign.

He said many people in the projects supported Mr. Sarkozy, even if they were reluctant to talk about it.

"They speak through the ballots," he said, noting that while Ms. Royal won 41.1 percent of the vote in La Courneuve, Mr. Sarkozy received a respectable 22.9 percent, more than the centrist candidate François Bayreu and better than President Jacques Chirac fared in the 2002 presidential election. "There are people that want a little order, a little rigor," Mr. Boungou-Pouaty said.

He is reassured because Mr. Sarkozy himself is a second-generation immigrant, born to a Hungarian refugee.

"The name Sarkozy isn't French like Royal or Le Pen," Mr. Boungou-Pouaty said, referring to Ms. Royal and the defeated far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. "To have a name like that at the top of France, that's something."

But the accusations of racism have stuck. The soccer star Lilian Thuram says that Mr. Sarkozy told him during the 2005 unrest that "It's the blacks and Arabs who created problems in the suburbs." Though Mr. Sarkozy says the story is not true, Mr. Thuram has repeated it over and over, becoming a popular voice of the anti-Sarkozy movement.

"If Sarkozy wins, I'm sure there'll be trouble the night of the elections," said Mr. Hamidi, the Bondy Blog editor. With Ségo, things will be calm for five years."

In a way, Mr. Sarkozy's confrontational style has already changed the suburbs, where economic stagnation had deepened political apathy. Many minority youths registered to vote in the wake of the 2005 unrest and abstentions in the suburbs fell by half to about 15 percent in the first round of voting.

Mr. Boungou-Pouaty warns that Mr. Sarkozy will have only one chance to make good on his message.

"We will see how he constitutes his government, whether it includes blacks and Arabs," Mr. Boungou-Pouaty said. "If they disappoint us, it's over."

So there's going to be violence, is there?

2007-05-04T20:27:49Z

My dear Madame Royal, why am I suspicious of your bleats of concern to the media that my victory on Sunday will trigger violence in the streets? Is it possible that you and your supporters are planning something yourselves, and you're just laying the groundwork for it here? And after it's all over, will you be pointing the finger at the jobless youths of the banlieus when it's really agents provocateurs of the Parti Socialiste who'll be behind it all, and you who'll be behind the Parti Socialiste flunkeys?

Dominique, I hope you're taking notice of this, and that you'll instruct my successor at the Interior Ministry to be vigilant.

Friday musings

2007-04-27T22:59:59Z

*grits teeth* Cécilia, my love, will you please stop telling people that in ten years you see yourself jogging in Central Park in New York. If there's jogging to be done, you'll be doing it here in Paris somewhere near the Elysée.

So, Ségolène, I hear that François doesn't plan to join you in the Elysée should you manage to steal the election from me. Not that you have a snowball's chance in hell of doing that, you understand; still it does speak to the state of your "relationship" doesn't it? As does the fact that he doesn't rule out running for the presidency himself in 2012. This must be very confusing for the children. Tell me, ma chère, are you and he a couple or not? Your story keeps changing. And don't go throwing Cécilia's attitude in my face; she doesn't pretend to be interested in being the next Bernadette. Hmmm ... perhaps I'll have to look into finding someone else to act as hostess at official functions. Dominique, where are you? Do you think Marie might be persuaded to be decorative here in Paris instead of playing at being a ~~working girl~~ (pardon! I didn't mean it like that) ~~clothes horse~~ career woman in New York? Talk to her about it for me, will you?

Monsier Bayrou, the papers say, fancies himself as being a kingmaker. *fumes* A toad on a tractor, that's what he is! Perhaps Ségo in her guise of a "free woman" (isn't that what you're calling yourself these days, chérie?) might be willing to pucker up and give him a kiss, but I stand above all that! I stand on principle! I'm what France (and La France) needs, even if it's not recognised yet. *looks balefully at the Bayrou article in the Financial Times again* And what does he mean by saying I'm like Berlusconi?

Shall I start my own countdown?

2007-04-17T22:06:44Z

Just four days to the election, and I already feel the mantle of greatness settling on my shoulders. The Partie Socialiste is at war with itself, with Ségolène talking about making common cause with Bayrou, even as others in the party won't hear of the idea. Was it Fabius who said "Not until hell freezes over"? Oh, no, sorry, that was Dominique about something else altogether.... *smiles in anticipation* Bayrou, for his part, seems to want nothing to do with Ségo and her minions. Quite right, too. After all, the quicker he's defeated, the quicker he can go home to the people who understand him, like his horses. *thinks* Of course, between his horses and Ségolène's sheep, maybe the two of them have more in common than it first appears.

And speaking of horses, did everyone see the cover of this week's Economist? Such a nice touch, putting my face on the David portrait of Napoleon. Clearly some people are able to recognise greatness when they see it. If you missed the cover, just go over to Dominique's journal and follow the link. Merci, mon cher ami! That was very considerate of you, going out and posting the link without even being asked. Continue being proactive like that, and there's no telling how far you'll go someday.

This way to the link: http://dominiquelechic.livejournal.com/29361.html

sarko_le_grand

Birthday greetings

*groans*

Further message to Dominique

Speechless with rage

Sarko I

Dear Dominique...

I Resign

Nigeria?

*groans*

She's just a talented member of my team

What's next ... Satan putting in a good word for God?

I suppose you thought I'd forget

Merde!

Dear Ségolène....

2014 Olympics

I AM NOTHING LIKE BERLUSCONI !!!!!!!

The two of you are giving me a headache

Disgusted with the whole lot of you

Financial Times article

How ruthlessness and resilience carried Sarkozy to the Elysée

Angela, my aplogies

It's going to be a long five years

I have nothing to hide or to fear

So there's going to be violence, is there?

Friday musings

Shall I start my own countdown?

groans

groans