The president is in trouble, and the president says that it is the president's fault. Not his own fault, but the fault of the previous president, Jacques Chirac, and the president before that and the president before that ... Nicolas Sarkozy, who celebrates one year in office next Friday, is now the least popular president in the half century of the French Fifth Republic. In a combative, and some said arrogant, pep talk to his centre-right parliamentarians last week, President Sarkozy blamed everyone but himself.It was the fault of his former mentor, President Chirac, who had given up trying to reform France after six months. It was the fault of the French people, who detested change. It was the fault of the French press, which had turned itself into a rabid "opposition" because the nominal, Socialist-led opposition was so "useless".President Sarkozy even took side-swipes at the late President François Mitterrand and his own political hero, Charles de Gaulle. "It was a political strategy seminar of incredible arrogance," said one deputy from Sarkozy's party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP).Two weeks ago, President Sarkozy seemed to have decided that, to make something of his four remaining years in office, he must take a humbler approach. In a prime-time television interview, he admitted that he had made "mistakes", but promised to push ahead with his plans to make the French state smaller and to encourage France to work harder. This kinder, gentler Sarko does not appear to have lasted for very long, though.
The president is in trouble, and the president says that it is the president's fault. Not his own fault, but the fault of the previous president, Jacques Chirac, and the president before that and the president before that ...
Nicolas Sarkozy, who celebrates one year in office next Friday, is now the least popular president in the half century of the French Fifth Republic. In a combative, and some said arrogant, pep talk to his centre-right parliamentarians last week, President Sarkozy blamed everyone but himself.
It was the fault of his former mentor, President Chirac, who had given up trying to reform France after six months. It was the fault of the French people, who detested change. It was the fault of the French press, which had turned itself into a rabid "opposition" because the nominal, Socialist-led opposition was so "useless".
President Sarkozy even took side-swipes at the late President François Mitterrand and his own political hero, Charles de Gaulle. "It was a political strategy seminar of incredible arrogance," said one deputy from Sarkozy's party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP).
Two weeks ago, President Sarkozy seemed to have decided that, to make something of his four remaining years in office, he must take a humbler approach. In a prime-time television interview, he admitted that he had made "mistakes", but promised to push ahead with his plans to make the French state smaller and to encourage France to work harder. This kinder, gentler Sarko does not appear to have lasted for very long, though.
He's been too busy flying around the world posing for photoshoots while standing on applecrates to do much real damage.
Is it too much to hope that we'll have another three years of yappy barking and very little action?
