Monday, May 07, 2007

Sarkozy victory

Newly elected President of France Sarkozy has made a big deal out of wanting to slash the number of unemployed (as Thatcher did when she was elected in '79 and then presided over a massive rise in unemployment and homelessness), develop hard line neo-liberal economic policy and hopes to "unite the nation" - as the riot police are immediately deployed, just to ensure everyone feels really, really united.

Some thoughts from around the blogosphere;

Tory blogger Iain Dale "I've said before that I am not a fan of Sarkozy. He looks to me to be slightly unbalanced and a bit of a bastard. I suppose I should console myself by the fact that as a man of the Right he is at least OUR bastard." Although Iain should take note that Sarkozy praised Tony Blair on more than one occasion during the campaign - perhaps that makes him everyone's bastard?

Lenin "Sarkozy means the unemployed youths, the low-paid workers, the immigrants and every other marginalised, exploited, oppressed group in society nothing but harm, a few riots would be a healthy sign of life. Write it down and pass it on, I'm backing the Paris jihad the second it hits the streets."

Martin "No more 35 hour workweek for those spoiled lazy bastards, no more luxury benefits, finally a French economy in line with the rest of the EU."

The Nation on the other hand points out that whilst Sarko was the "Bush-friendly candidate for the presidency" he "was never going to be George Bush's "poodle" in the way that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been in the run-up to the Iraq war. During the campaign, Sarkozy pointedly stated his opposition to the war, backed moves to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan, and allowed as how "the messianic side of Americans can be tiresome.""

Bum. Let's hope the elections next month are more cheering.

4 comments:

Shayn said...

His untold impact is going to be his adverse effect in the fight for global warming. His push to "modernize" France is going to leave the environment in the dumps. Not that he can't throw enough crumbs or pay the proper lip service. He has already started to do that, but his cozy relationship with the U.S. is going to lead him straight out of the tough talk in the E.U. and straight into the soft business friendly jargon of the U.S. and it's massive oil industry.

Nice blog you have here. Check out mine sometime.

Anonymous said...

Do you think 'Lenin' actually knows what 'jihad' means?

Jim Jepps said...

I suspect on this occassion he's joking... but, personally, I find the term jihad and interesting and complex one - if I were more informed I'd probably write a post on it - but Islam is a very polarised subject with dogmatists at every turn so I'm best steering clear before people start going about dozens of virgins and that

John Mullen said...

Sarkozy's first attacks

Although naturally Sarkozy is leaving major attacks until after the parliamentary elections (and being very "open" to some centre and even socialist politicians, the first attacks on on their way. Firstly, reductions in reimbursment of medical expenses (In France you normally pay then get the money back). Some medicines will have reduced reimbursement percentages.
Secondly "flexibilization of school catchment areas". Often at the moment a school takes everyone in the neighbourhood, conserving in this way a certain social mix (though richer or more cultured parents do sometimes find ways round this through fraud or lobbying. Sarkozy wants to abolish the catchment areas. "More choice for parents" means separate state schools for working class kids and for middle class kids, and the creation of sink schools for poorer areas. Up till now social mix had held up better than in other countries, and there was a policy of smaller classes in poorer areas.

Meanwhile for the parliamentary elections, the radical Left remains hopelessly divided. The PCF and in particular the LCR, despite grandiloquent appeals for unity, have refused almost everywhere to put up united candidacies of the radical Left, sometimes by inventing at the last moment new conditions for their allies.

John Mullen
http://www.johncmullen.net