Le Republique Sarkozy

Thoughts on France.

And so the French, in a spectucular run-off election, with the highest electoral turnout in recent years, ont voté Nikolas Sarkozy de leur president prochaine.

Forgive my poor use of French; it is always easier to read than it is to interpret at the elemental linguistic levels where one abondoned any hope of an able comprehension of a second or third language. Be that as it may, depending on its collective politics, the world should not only overlook my poor language skills, but also perhaps forgive the French Republic for electing a right-of-centre Amero to their presidency, or at least forgive the media for causing mass hysteria at the thought of an Americanized Marianne in some pockets of The Beautiful Nation.

I know little of Sarkozy, and so do you. We know that he’s right-of-centre, that Segolene Royal was left-of-centre, and that there was some former farmer moving up the middle on previous ballots. We also know that the crass rhetoric of pseudo-politicians such as Jean-Marie Le Pen has turned a lot of French domestic policy on its end in the past couple years. Neither Sarkozy nor Royal, of course, would even stand up and demand the mass deportation of any large group of Algerian/Muslim/”non-French” French, but both have taken hard lines on crime and immigration in the wake of too many riots and protests in recent years.

Zizou, extracted of French-Algerian birth, 47% of your adopted homeland and adoring fans appear to have forsaken you.

Nicolas Sarkozy, a man of recent emigré roots himself (but then again, who does not fall from such a tree in today’s world?), has at times, as a minister of the interior, and as a presidential candidate, cursed, pondered and grieved The Immigrant Question. With a 53%/47% split in the final election, the new president will have a difficult time appeasing both his supportes and detracters over the next three years. He seems to understand that situation, given his concession that “the president of the republic must love and respect all the French” and promise to ” be the president of all the French people” in spite of his rhetoric in the same speech that he has accepted a “mandate” for change from the whole people. Every four or five years, French domestic affairs flairs up for the international media; we may be in store a “sea of change” or “wave of innovation” in France, if the political, and media, theatre, is allowed to craft it in such a manner.

—

You are commodified.

(The image in todays header has egregiously been lifted from Sarkostique.)