Main focus of Friday, March 12, 2010

Sarkozy facing defeat

Regional elections will take place in France on Sunday, and opinion polls are predicting a defeat for the conservatives in the governing UMP. Commentators say President Nicolas Sarkozy has disappointed his voters, and lay the blame for his party's drop in popularity squarely on his shoulders.

Frankfurter Rundschau - Germany

President Nicolas Sarkozy would be to blame for a potential defeat of the conservative government camp in France's regional elections, the left-liberal Frankfurter Rundschau writes: "The head of state cast himself to voters as someone whose will could move mountains, as 'super Sarko'. 'I am the state', was his arrogant message. And now that the French state, already staggering under the weight of over inflated expectations, is not providing the required protection in the crisis, his 'I am the state' has turned into a boomerang. ... First he announced he would rescue companies threatened by closure, which then closed anyway. Then he announced falling unemployment figures only to be contradicted by the statistics. ... With all the toing and froing quite a few French have lost their faith in the president and what was once his trademark: strong leadership." (12/03/2010)

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Corriere della Sera - Italy

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be punished in the regional elections, liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera predicts, saying that dissatisfaction in the French parliament also indicates this: "For Nicolas Sarkozy this will be the most difficult weekend since he took office. ... But the French aren't waiting for Sunday's results to express their disappointment with the president. A disappointment that has been spreading even in the ranks of the parliamentary majority for some time now, where the star of the gentler yet stricter Prime Minister François Fillon is beginning to rise. Here it's mainly about image, quite apart from the fact that the great procession of reforms that Sarkozy had so loudly announced has come to a standstill under the weight of the economic crisis and the corporate resistance of French society." (12/03/2010)

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Mediapart.fr - France

The French Right has disappointed its electorate, writes the online paper Mediapart with an eye to the poor opinion poll results for the governing UMP: "After half of the legislature period the machinery of Sarkozy's presidency, this blend of willful omnipresence and factual omnipotence, has ground to a halt. The mechanism has jammed, and the mechanic himself seems unsure or overstrained. ... The period that will come to an end in March 2010 with two sets of regional elections is making clear how out of touch the government is with its own electorate. The right-wing is baffled and has stopped hiding it. François Fillion, the humiliated and mistreated prime minister, is now being treated as a possible presidential candiate. ... And although they may profit in the regional elections, the Left is in no way responsible for the Right's growing unpopularity." (11/03/2010)

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All available articles from » Edwy Plenel

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