France’s election

You can’t keep him down

Nicolas Sarkozy closes the gap

See article

Readers' comments


luigi bianchi

The poll is surely false,like the tale of the "growth" of the french economy published by INSEE.Sarkozy,blackmailer,defamer,warmonger,liar,corrupter is playing this false card with the same cynism and total lack of morality with which he organized the frameup of DSK.This bandit is like Pepè le Moko:when he fights,he fights police.It is time,indeed,for the french electors to polish the image of their country,dirtied by this gangster.Hollamd is an honest man viewing Europe as a space of collaboration,not a ring (where Sarko the fighter has taken more than a punch on the nose,and suffered more than a knock out).To have such funny imitation of a leader in Paris is not convenient for Europe and France.


It is a sad reflection on France that a failed president (who was going to rupture France five years ago) who has not done a day's proper work, other than politics for decades, in a system he has been ministerial part of for decades, should require ANOTHER five years in power.
To achieve what EXACTLY?
To suggest that no-one else could possibly manage a crisis of which HIS policy has much responsibility in creating, rates France's pool of potential presidential talent from over 60 million citizens very low indeed.
Oh dear!
And the spin machine falls for it dragging senseless citizens in its wake?
It is quite obviously time for the president to spend far more time with his family.
His wife claims he NEVER stops 'working', (though then modifies this in the same breath to 20 hours a day). Given his ritalin-starved marital activity of which he so foolishly boasts, one might wonder how France could possibly be managed effectively by a man who gets less than four hours of sleep a night, if any at all, and could possibly stay alive, let alone sane, for another five years.
But then isn't this all just hype and spin to make a mediocre failure look electable?
Just HOW will Nicky ensure an advanced France for 2017, far ahead of the France he started to administer and govern all those decades ago and has just got to here?

Plazidus in reply to Gianni

To prevent some other joker making an even worse mess? One has to work within the constraints of a constitution designed to throw up dodgy demagogues.


Something tells me that - for all his more-than-manifest failings - the average-sized gentleman with the enhanced heels is the best that can be hoped for from this presidential election. There are two main reasons: he has some understanding of matters financial and strategic. The same cannot, as things stand, be said alas on behalf of the other contestants.
But then France is full of eccentrics insisting – for instance – on paying through the nose for their organic veg yet consuming meat slaughtered under mediaeval conditions. So I suppose we’ll just have to settle for their choice: forthright, fourth-rate François. Golly.

mashed potatoes in reply to Plazidus

Hi Plazidus, if I am allowed to tell you my humble opionion: It doesn't matter which of the two clowns wins, France is doomed and will have to reform very hard very soon. The Economist is offering this great piece in the "what we read" section:

"As they compete in populism — a new tax every day, a new reform every hour — Messrs. Hollande and Sarkozy avoid the elephant in the room: the fact that France is fast headed toward a major crisis. The country long enjoyed the same credit rating as Germany even though its finances are in the same shape as Portugal's."

And if the socialist wins, the following is going to happen:
"This culminated in the mind-boggling proposal to create a 75% upper income tax rate, which would actually amount to 90% when added to another, universal tax levied to finance the welfare state. One can already hear London Mayor Boris Johnson laughing all the way to St. Pancras as he prepares to welcome the French bankers and executives who will soon add to the City's riches."

Seriously, we can't get a better show in any circus than that! LOL

Plazidus in reply to mashed potatoes


Hi, mashed potatoes. Something tells me that the hyper-kinetic shorty might outpace the well-meaning reformed tubby. Neither the candidates, personally, nor the constitutional mechanism within which the candidates perform – a kind of 'Miss France' bathing-beauty contest – do much to inspire confidence in voters or observers from afar. Yes, I read the WSJ article. If I’m mocking the French it’s because the situation is so very, desperately sad. (Sunday morning is confession time.)

The thing is, mashed potatoes, when I watch German politics in action on the TV, I see a process which is as worthy as it is verbose, and which works. It may check and balance itself to the point of stasis. But thank heaven for what you’ve got… as I’m sure you do. The French are not so lucky. The French Fifth Republic bears the hallmark of her – no less flawed – author.

mashed potatoes in reply to Plazidus

Believe me, no matter how sarcastic my comments are: I find this situation desperately sad as well. I do not want a new big mess in another EU country, especially not in France which is too big to fail and to save. I find it disillusioning to see in which way the two leading candidates are trying to get more votes and that their populism seems to work out. I hope that the French people are aware that the Titanic is heading for the iceberg.


When you write,"The French have never quite forgiven Mr Sarkozy’s early errors of style, celebrating victory in a flashy restaurant and on a yacht in the Mediterranean, nor his casual approach to the solemnity of presidential office.",you miss one important issue. That of the partisanship of the media in France. By far, most of the political discourse received by the French is highly biased. We do not have anything like the BBC or PBS in France, to mention what most people have access to in terms of media-television. Our public televion and radio,which should be neutral, have always had a strong bias against right wing parties, capitalism, finance, all the big evils of left wing thinkers. Most media, since Sarkozy took office, and even before he took office, have done their political best to portray him in the most negative fashion, ceaselessly. And what the French think of our president is in great part due to this constant bashing. When you have media with a left wing political agenda and a president not always very careful about his actions and statements (for they will be always caricatured and distorted to fit the media bias), after five years of brain-washing, it is not surprising that most French people cannot forgive faults that were either made up by the media or grossly caricatured. Day after day, bulletin news after bulletin news, this biased media coverage has succeeded in making unpopular the president they had decided would not be reelected. And I have to admit that I find it surprising that such a phenomenon (press bias) in one of the biggest countries in Europe never gets covered in The Economist. French people think what the media tells them to think, like in other countries. Except that in some countries, like in Britain with the BBC and the USA with PBS, one can have access to unbiased reporting. So it is not originally the French that have never forgiven Sarkozy, but the media that have ceaselessly portrayed him in the most negative way. I do not know whether this behavior is ingrained in the French genius. Journalists in my country do not see anything wrong with tainting their reports, even choosing their reports, according to their political bias. I profoundly dislike it.

Omiccron in reply to quantamoi


Unbiased? ARE YOU KIDDING??? My friend, all media are biased, you should get used to that idea. When they are public-owned governments have influence on them and when they are private-owned lobbies instrumentalize them in their own interest. BBC, CBS, PBS, TF1, France2, Fox News, Al you really think one of them tells "unbiased" information?

quantamoi in reply to Omiccron

i know their is no fully unbiased reporting. i guess i should have said relatively unbiased. there is a huge difference between French public tv and radio and the BBC and PBS though. so to me the latter are unbiased (because i truly think they make a genuine effort to be fair). but as complete unbiased reporting, obviouly, the very choice of a topic is a subjective decision. so, relatively unbiased. ok?

spartan33 in reply to quantamoi

Have you watched the 'interview' of Sarkozy by Laurence Ferrari on TF1? It was pathetic - as is every single interview of Sarkozy by French so-called journalists that don't dare to be the least critical.
The words of my 15-year old brother after the interview : "If I conducted I interview with Sarkozy I'd put him at 10% of positive opinions". Sarkozy is a fraud. What did he do in 5 years? Nothing. He does not even have the decency to present a program. How can he get 27-30% in the polls? The results of his current mandate?

napoleon_fan in reply to spartan33

Yes, he did not do anything in 5 years BECAUSE the f****** left wing media stopped him to, with their f****** communist views.
If ANY other candidate than Sarkozy wins the election, I assure you France will face an economic disaster, at least Sarkozy handled the economy quite well compared to other top economies (through the biggest economic crisis ever), even though there are still massive reforms to be done.

spartan33 in reply to napoleon_fan

3 points for you:

1. You are on TE. So please, should you wish to praise Sarkozy's work, develop your point. If you want to play cheerleader for Sarkozy you can go on Figaro.

2. "Sarkozy handled the economy very well". The only reason the French economy fared RELATIVELY well was because of the structure of the French economy and the role of the State within this said economy. It has strictly nothing to do with any measure implemented by Sarkozy. If I am wrong can you please let me know what measure had what positive impact?

3. Thank you for "assuring" me that "France will face an economic disaster".

napoleon_fan in reply to spartan33

1. Thank you for advising me to go on Le Figaro. It is more fun here, I have people like you to teach me lessons.

2. BTW i said 'quite well'. still, what about saving the Greeks? What about the Retirement reform? what about the University reform? . But anyway changing France is much more difficult than any other western countries. I am actually happy he managed to do all this. Passing a reform has become impossible, with the left wing press ordering people to go on strike
Take the Retirement Age Reform, due to the massive anti-reform mobilisation, the Government almost cancelled it. If you are economically sound, this reform is imperatively needed (and not enough actually). In the UK, Cameron announces massive cuts, and people are happy about it. In France, we did not even dare to talk about cuts until we were obliged to by the Rating Agencies.
If Sarkozy could not do every reform he wanted to, it is mainly because the French, in trueness, do not like change. And if they are not happy about a reform... strikes, protests during months...

3. Sarkozy is the only candidate that can prevent that.
You are more than welcome.

mashed potatoes

Why is Bayrou not more popular? If I were French, I'd vote neither for Sarkozy nor Hollande.

Bob Kenyon in reply to mashed potatoes

Bayrou is not a credible option, his party is rather weak. They have less than 10 MPs. He never managed to convene more than a few people and that's a bad sign for a candidate. He's good at talking and many of his comments make sense so he gets support in the poll but with whom would he govern, without majority at the parliament and very few people able to be minister?

ahmed limam

Sarkozy is playing the same con game he did last time round: impressive promises which will be followed by ZERO action . Shaking up Schengen? Yeah, right. Why didn’t he do it before? He had five full years to do something about it. Who in their right mind will believe that what wasn’t done in five years will suddenly be achieved?

As for going after tax exiles, that is such a shameless fraud that only a hypocritical politician like Sarkozy can offer it. This is a measure that has ZERO chance of being implemented. First of all, by making it more difficult for French citizens to leave the country, this policy will run foul of the European Union’s freedom-of-movement rule.

Second, France has tax treaties to cover fiscal exiles with 130 countries. It will have to go through a lengthy and complex renegotiation process with each one of these states. In other words, rich French people have nothing to worry about, this policy will never see the light of day. But again they knew they never had to worry since Sarko is their buddy. This is just a smokescreen policy to try and appear as if he were on the side of “the people.” Pathetic gnome he is.

Read my blog from a year and a half ago on him and you will see that nothing has changed: Sarkozy couldn’t care less about the French people. He is now shedding crocodile tears on his past errors just because he is seeing that the election is about to be lost and short of anything illegal (well, I’m not even sure there), he will sto(o)p at nothing to cling to power. Yes, pathetic.


Latest blog posts - All times are GMT
Car technology: Turbocharged
Schumpeter 17 mins ago
Gun laws: Prayers and pistols
Democracy in America July 11th, 17:43
Daily chart: Justice on trial
Graphic detail July 11th, 13:40
Technology and fashion: Storming the maisons
Schumpeter July 11th, 10:05
Financial literacy: Back to basics
Free exchange July 11th, 10:01


Products and events



