Sarkozy’s Cynical Appeal to the Center
With Royal and Bayrou seeking common ground, and with Bayrou seeming to give his supporters a subtle cue to support Royal in next Sunday’s second round of the French presidential election, Sarkozy is now himself trying to woo the center. At a rally in Paris yesterday, Sarkozy explicitly reached out to Bayrou’s supporters. He reiterated the rightist views that form the core of his platform, but “[h]e said the views of Mr Bayrou’s supporters would be taken into account and he offered to introduce some proportional representation in parliament”.
Aw, how generous. Politicians will say anything in a pinch, won’t they? — and Sarkozy is certainly in one. He’s the favourite to win the presidency, given how well he did in the first round, but enough support from Bayrou’s center could put Royal over the top.
And here’s the problem for Sarkozy: I don’t think he’s on the hard right, but his platform seems to be a mixture of neo-liberalism, xenophobia, authoritarianism. And during the campaign leading up to the first round he made a concerted effort to reach out to Le Pen’s rightist National Front, a movement that is truly hard right. And that effort seems to have worked — Sarkozy won and Le Pen ended up a distant fourth. And now, after all that, he’s making an appeal to the center?
Surely French voters do not have such short memories.
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4 Responses to “Sarkozy’s Cynical Appeal to the Center”
In any case, Sarkozy is clearly superior to Ms. Royal.
I don’t see why it’s surprising that the conservative candidate is not only trying to attract voters from the right wing but also from the center? Is that really a surprise? Should it be forbidden just because leftists don’t like it?
Michael,
Forgive me, but this post is indicative of poor American interpretation of French politics. Sarkozy may be right as the French define him, but in the US he would be running as a Democrat. As there are parties across the French spectrum, you would hardly expect Sarko to ignore any electoral group not aligned with the Socialists.
While I personally find Royal to be hot, she’s a light weight and would lead France (a land that I love) down a tunnel to Lewis Carrol Land. Sarko at least is an adult and can govern from the middle. Just as Bayrou petered out in the prelims, his support may flag when the French have to make a decision.
I get your lefty politics perfectly, but it’s making you a cheer leader for a candidate just because she’s in the left party. Or so you think.
And by the way, an appeal to the center (do you know what the French center is?) is only cynical when the “right” does it? Is Royal, in your opinion a centrist? Really?
Michael,
I’ve heard some people who aren’t particularly fond of Sarkozy of describe him as having authoritarian tendencies, and yet no one ever seems to give any examples of this. Authoritarian is a fairly weighty charge–one that I feel deserves some examples to back it up.
I’ve alternatively heard Sarkozy being described as “libertarian” (a good thing, in my opinion) or “neoconservative” (not so good, in my opinion). In fact, I even came across a comment once in which Sarkozy was described as a “neoconservative libertarian”, which makes utterly no sense since neoconservatives and libertarians have very little in common.
What exactly about Sarkozy’s platform is “authoritarian”? Does he favor cracking down on victimless crimes? Does he support racial profiling of minorities? Does he favor strong anti-terror legislation that erodes civil liberties? What is it?