The Expanding French Kennel
May 18, 2007
British media loves poodles. First there was the revoltingly sycophantic farewell to Tony Blair. I forced myself to sit through 10 minutes of BBC’s Newsnight before my patience was taxed. Now the media is delighted Britain would no longer remain the most ridiculed little country in Europe. France is in competition. If Hitler were alive today, he would be a ‘reformer’ in British media lexicon. So of Sarkozy the Guardian writes:
The energetic rightwing reformer, elected with a huge mandate for change, is a fan of America and there was a hint of John F Kennedy as he and his military escort slowly drove past crowds on his way to rekindle the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe…Mr Sarkozy set a tone of glamour and informality. All eyes were on his wife Cecilia, their four adult children from earlier marriages and their 10-year-old son who laughed and chatted at the official ceremony in the Elysée’s Salle des Fêtes.
French TV decided it was very “American” and “à la Kennedy”, an observation that the US-friendly Sarkozys, avid readers of biographies of JFK and his wife Jackie, would welcome.
John F Kennedy was all about an “open-topped car and waving to crowds” of course. The New Labour rag forgot to add of course that unlike Jackie, Cecilia did not even consider the husband worthy of her vote.
THE wife of Nicolas Sarkozy did not vote in the election in which he won the French presidency, according to a website that claimed the newspaper which had the information first gave in to pressure not to reveal it.
Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, a fiercely independent PR executive, was absent from much of her husband’s election campaign.
Rue89.com…attributed the news that Ms Sarkozy did not vote in the May 6 second round to Le Journal du Dimanche.
The newspaper’s managing editor, Jacques Esperandieu, conceded he had decided not to publish the story, saying it concerned “the private sphere”. He had received “a number of phone calls from people stressing the very private and very personal nature of the information”.
That is not where the comedy ends, sadly. The New Labour rag now turns its affections towards Sarkozy’s choice for the post of Prime Minister, François Fillon. There is no doubt that he must be a ‘reformer’, given the limited option of adjectives with which British media can manifest its deference to power. All that remains, however, is the question of temperament. If Sarkozy was the ‘energetic rightwing reformer‘, Fillon, we are told, is a ‘cool-headed reformer‘ – besides being a ‘a tea-drinking anglophile who has spent time at Downing Street observing Tony Blair, impressed by New Labour’s “informal” style.’ But he has more achievements under his belt.
Mr Fillon, a loyal Sarkozy adviser, shares the president’s conviction that France is reformable [notice the recurrance of this word -- m.i.a] and desperate for change, and that street protests can be faced down.
As social affairs minister he pushed through controversial pensions reform [again!] despite strikes and demonstrations by more than a million protesters and is known as a “listener” among powerful union leaders. He is determined to quickly enact Mr Sarkozy’s plans to cut taxes, loosen the 35-hour week rule and curb strike powers.
