by r------
Wed Jan 10th, 2007 at 07:48:11 AM EST
As Presidential elections heat up in France a bit, an interesting article was posted up on the PS website in the Hebdo Socialiste. Interesting enough that it hit Télématin's "Revue de Presse" this morning, something usually reserved for the national dailies, the IHT and the major regional papers. A harbinger of things to come for the darling of the French right.

Titled (loosely, no thought as to properly figuring out the English idiom here) "Sarkozy: Worryingly Out of Step," with a subtitle suggesting he is being purposefully quiet about it, the article (will translate key parts later, time permitting) rehashed all the points which the PS and the Royal camp are preparing against the likely 2nd round adversary.
I could detail them all, but as Alban Mickoczy, host of "Revue de Presse," underlined, the key phrase is all in the introduction:
La France est elle prête à voter en 2007 pour un néo-conservateur américain à passeport français ? Les partisans du candidat de l'UMP jugeront la question provocatrice et y verront, à l'approche, de l'élection présidentielle, une caricature injuste, exacerbée par l'approche de l'élection présidentielle.
Redstar Translation:
Is France really ready to elect an American neo-con carrying a French passport? Sarko's supporters think this question is unfair. So be it. Let's let them answer it anyway.
Meme at work here? Sakozy's out of step: with French Gaullist traditions of the right, and with the French people in general. (Hat tip to old frog.)
A Schroeder campaign in the cards? Yes and no. Royal is also popular, unlike Schroeder's party, whose deep unpopularity prompted him to run against Bush instead of the German conservative opposition, on the way to an improbable re-election four years ago. So there will be far more substance posited on her side as well.
But if you think you won't see much of that photo I've posted up there with the article, think again...