France And The End Of 'Sarkozyism'

By: Andrew_McKillop

Once Upon A Time
Not so long ago, but a long time in politics, Nicolas Sarkozy and his win-all neolib political gimmick called “Sarkozyism” was riding high. French voters seemed to love it. But times change.

With a nod in the right direction and a few telephone calls to the right judges, lawyers, and arbitral chiefs he could enrich his pal Bernard Tapie, a bent millionaire on 11 July 2008, with the princely sum of 403 million euros for the “prejudices” Tapie supposedly suffered on the collapse of the bent French bank, Credit Lyonnais (CL). This bent bank then returned under new wraps calling itself Le Credit Lyonnais (LCL). The payment included 45 million euros for the harm occasioned to Tapie's moral standing, renown and personal sentiments. Arbitral team member and future IMF chief Christine Lagarde, then Finance minister, was eager to richly reward Tapie. After all, she was herself a classic product of “Sarkozyism” and its corrupt, incompetent, crony capitalist empire. Which fell apart.

Sarkozy, according to French judges in July 2014 stooped very, very low. Among the 8 charges he is now formally accused of, several carry sentences of up to 10 years jail in the case of the accused being found guilty. Sarkozy instantly played the martyr saying he is a victim of politically-motivated judges and had always obeyed his own credo that a French president has “no rights and only duties” to the nation. This made him – for example – hand over 403 million euros to football team buyer, de-industrialization artiste, laughably unsuccessful author and hamfisted theatre actor Bernard Tapie. Tapie needed the cash! Such a nice man.

The call of “duty to the nation” also made Sarkozy seek perhaps 50 million euros from “his friend” Muammar Gaddafi, who he later had killed with his NATO partners – to fund his unsuccessful presidential re-election campaign and keep his UMP political party afloat. It was all and only in the line of (French) presidential duty! You have to believe.

Sarkozy was The Joker of French politics and a fragile clown who got embarassing at the end.

Sarkozy and French Insecurity
Whoever wants to can check up Sarkozy's last attempt to get the Fear Vote before his failed re-election bid, called the Mohamad (or Mohammed) Mera affair, of 2012. This brought home to average French “the realities of Islamic extremism, terror and fundamentalism” close to them. Sarkozy of course defended French petit bourgeois values and the Republic. The designer event featured the killing of a Rabbi and three Jewish school pupils in Toulouse, and the killing of three French soldiers returning home after service duty fighting Islamic extremists in Africa.

At the UMP's headquarters, in 2011, Nicolas Sarkozy and his circle of clowns called “advisors” suddenly found out that Average White French, with a vote, are now obsessed with insecurity. They cannot stand cars being burnt, by thousands at Christmas time and other public holidays. They are distressed by mugging attacks in cities outside the central districts where the police and security cameras outnumber people! They dislike mosques and – even more – open air Muslim prayer sessions in their cities. They object to halal food being included in school canteen meals. But above all they are scared by ghetto bandits in all major French cities who strut around with AK47s - and use them.

Why can't their Little Sarkozy clean them all out with a high-pressure water hose – called a Karcher in France – like he promised he would, when he was Interior minister, before they joyously elected him president?  In 2011, Sarkozy's UMP party had become officially aware that French voters are “increasingly concerned” that non-French persons, or French persons under the influence of foreigners, have hostile intentions towards French police, gendarmes and security service personnel. For many voters, the mainstream media went on, only the extreme-right National Front of Marine Le Pen seemed to have the right answer.

Make it legally possible to deport any immigrant who entered France since 1974. This is the magic cut-off date. If you want to know why its 1974 – ask Marine Le Pen.
Against this “shocking clarity”, Sarkozy's UMP only had fumbling laws and vague regulations that could or might improve security in an undramatic way.  The UMP could only lose votes to the National Front, chipping away at the UMP's lead against the Parti Socialiste of Francois Hollande.

Laying It On Thick and Viscous
Sarkozy's team of hand-picked party heavyweights belted out the theme of Sarozy = Security. His longstanding personal muse and advisor, Brice Hortefeux, developed the policy plank that persons who are polygamous are also delinquant. And above all, these delinquants do not inhabit the richer districts of French cities where Sarkozy's monogamous glove puppet admirers, including same-sex married couples troop out to vote for the UMP – like the smug sheeple they are.

Quite amazingly, but for Sarkozy this was good economic sense, the numbers of police, gendarmes and security personnel had to be reduced – to cut costs. If local police stations could not even afford furniture, let alone PCs, this was their problem and they could go out and beg for it! Sarkozy appointed his chief Kommandatur for the electoral struggle against insecurity, called Claude Gueant (now also facing multiple charges of corruption, theft of public funds, personal enrichment and false tax statements). Immediately on appointment as Interior Minister, Gueant opined that the sheer number of Muslims in France is “already a problem”, totally unlike the so-well-integrated Jewish members of the French community.

Within a few months, the Mohamad Mera affair was planned, launched, and went primetime.
Like an admirer of Margaret Thatcher should, Sarkozy intensified his policy of divide-and-rule by picking on any weak person, group, community or economic sector – and put in the boot! His sheeple admirers, supposedly, thrilled to see the weak being harmed. They loved that open air sport, the way that Romans thrilled to watch gladiatorial open-air killings.

Can The Joker Stay Out Of Jail
This is now a real question. French presidents – only when in office – cannot be charged with wrongdoing, but out of power they can be. Former president Jacques Chirac, after his second and last term was accused and found guilty of several petty corruption counts, and received a suspended jail term. His long-time prime minister Alain Juppe was also successfully charged and found guilty of political corruption charges, but “voluntarily exiled himself” to Canada for 4 years, and returned to France in virginal splendor, afterwards.

Sarkozy is a former president no longer in office, making it possible that the multiple and grave charges he faces could lead to imprisonment. Opinion polls in France already show that 65%-75% of French voters want him to never return to political life. The effects on his already splintered, or shattered UMP party are already intense.
The corrupt and discredited socialist PS party of Francois Hollande is preening itself as the Clean Party – for those with a memory that stretches no further back than a few weeks! Simply due to the massive public distrust of the Hollande Gang, its ability to profit from the “Sarkozy affair” will be low.

Sarkozy's role as the No 1 protector and friend of France's crony banksters will be aired. His atrocious record of economic mismanagement will be reviewed and commented to prove that if he was not the worst-ever French president – that is Hollande's role – he was The Joker and corrupt.

By Andrew McKillop

Contact: xtran9@gmail.com

Former chief policy analyst, Division A Policy, DG XVII Energy, European Commission. Andrew McKillop Biographic Highlights

Co-author 'The Doomsday Machine', Palgrave Macmillan USA, 2012

Andrew McKillop has more than 30 years experience in the energy, economic and finance domains. Trained at London UK’s University College, he has had specially long experience of energy policy, project administration and the development and financing of alternate energy. This included his role of in-house Expert on Policy and Programming at the DG XVII-Energy of the European Commission, Director of Information of the OAPEC technology transfer subsidiary, AREC and researcher for UN agencies including the ILO.

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