Sarko is no Pétain

Philippe Marlière's comparison, albeit behind the cover of Alain Badiou's polemic, of Nicolas Sarkozy to Philippe Pétain is grotesque (France falls out of love, January 9). After racism, 20th-century fascism's biggest lie was the conflation of liberal capitalism with Soviet communism. Marlière's analysis implies no distinction between "global capitalism" on the American or European model and the rise of illiberal capitalism in Asia.

What President Sarkozy is undertaking is in fact a relatively modest reform programme which will allow France to contribute fully to the necessary modernisation of Europe's social market economy. There is also a real prospect that under a new president we shall see a "Europeanisation" of the US system, as the size of the social and political, as well as the economic, challenge of China becomes more pressing. Far from caving in to American hegemony, President Sarkozy is endeavouring to promote a genuine convergence of values leading to a partnership of equals across the Atlantic between the US and the EU, which alone will secure our tradition of democracy and welfare.
Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron

Today's best video

Today in pictures