What seemed liberating when couched in the language of campaign promises now seems oppressive, now that the president's cleanup operation is affecting both France's good and bad traditions alike. While constantly citing the loftiest values, the most attractive ideals and the best motives, Sarkozy is doctoring around on the aging body of French democracy, but his incisions are now coming dangerously close to its vital organs. Suddenly such fundamental historical achievements like the separation of powers, freedom of the press and the protection of minorities are at stake in France today.

Some anecdotes:

Scene 1: Hervé Eon, a protestor who, during a Sarkozy visit to a rural area, carried a sign around his neck that read "Get lost, you imbecile" was brought to trial and found guilty of "insulting the head of state." Sarkozy, for his part, used the same words to reproach a citizen who had refused to shake his hand: "Get lost, you imbecile." Scene 2: The daily newspaper Le Figaro, owned by Serge Dassault, an arms merchant and friend of Sarkozy, published, on its front page, a retouched teaser photo of Justice Minister Rachida Dati. A €15,600 ($20,000) ring on the minister's hand was airbrushed out. Scene 3: After a demonstration by Corsican nationalists on the property of another Sarkozy's friend, actor Christian Clavier, the region's police chief was sacked, at the behest of Paris. Scene 4: A former managing editor of the leftwing daily Libération was taken away in handcuffs early one morning because of a letter to the editor published two years earlier, addressed as "scum" by police officers and subjected to multiple body searches.

More stuff you don't commonly read in non-French MSM:

...the precarious situation within the system is exacerbated by the fact that the president, upon taking office, appears to have forgotten everything he once promised to the weaker elements of society, while strictly keeping all the promises he made to society's strongest members.

But, don't celebrate too early... the article contains a lot of neolib standard wisdom on France.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}