French general Marcel Bigeard, known for his role in France's colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria, died Friday aged 94. In a statement, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Bigeard "the incarnation of the heroic figure of the fighter".
Just yesterday, Sarkozy was busy trying to wrap himself into De Gaulle's mantle in London; so is De Villepin today.
All right-wing politicians are now stumbling upon each other to appear as France's great man's heir. This at a time where a poll shows that Gaullism as a political doctrine does no longer have much significance for 73% of the French people. Apparently, it does in the French right bubbleworld.
This is particularly galling from Sarkozy, given his relentless efforts to dismantle the French social model set after the war based on the program from the National Council of the Resistance.
In that regard, Sarkozy is more Pétain than De Gaulle, collaborating with the very "market forces" he's proudly pretending to oppose. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
relentless efforts to dismantle the French social model set after the war based on the program from the National Council of the Resistance.
Spot-on comment.
