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THE WEATHER GIRL
I’m starting to believe that newly elected French president Nicholas Sarkozy may not get to finish his complete term. Based upon my understanding of the French psychology, which may not be that great but still beats that of 99% of the Anglo-Saxon world, the first push is coming from his beautiful wife, Cécilia, who is dragging him into divorce court only a few months after he won the election by a wide margin.
Frenchmen love money, but it is considered to be an ugly character trait to be too maniacally focused on the making of it. Essentially, you’re supposed to do what you have to in your business life, but then you go home and have your life. The concept of a business person allowing himself to be defined as some kind of gonzo nutso caveman hunter-gatherer has never been the case in French culture even going back to the Romans and beyond, even six thousand years ago, when the Phoenicians founded Marseille on the Mediterranean coast, drinking wine and smoking reefer in the evening (the main boulevard of Marseilles, La Canebière, is named after the cannabis plant). Capitalism and money is a relatively new phenomenon. Archeologists haven’t found monetary coins going back more than a few millennia in France, but they have discovered art and musical instruments dating back more than 50,000 years.
I started to feel that Sarkozy was a little peculiar when the American neo-conservatives swooned over him in ecstasy. These idiots haven’t liked any foreigner since Margaret Thatcher, who was a repugnant individual. But I at first figured that they were relieved that the French had a leader who would at least address some occasional kind remarks with regard to this country.
Sarkozy’s Socialist opponent, Ségolène Royal, seemed unfocused about what she wanted to accomplish like her predecessor, Lionel Jospin. This seems to be why the Socialists are getting beat time after time – they are not projecting an image of resolve. The issues are not too different from those driving American politics, the economy and immigration, and Sarkozy seemed to have mastered them to a finer degree than Royal.
Nevertheless, adoption of the barbaric Anglo-Saxon concept of savage capitalism as the basic tenet for French economic life may be carrying things too far for a country that just recently threw off its chains. Socialism has been kind to France and, while the people may be desirous of having more money in their pockets they certainly are not manifesting much interest in emulating the American model, which anyway seems more and more likely to implode any day now.
Sarkozy’s designation of Christine Lagarde as finance minister seems to exemplify his approach to economic reform. Lagarde lived in Chicago for many years and worked at a law firm there. She is a vociferous proponent of the Big Shoulders approach. Unfortunately she may have learnt her lesson too well, as she is one of the objects of an insider trading investigation over the precipitous dumping of EADS shares that took place prior to the announcement of production delays involving the Airbus A-380 super jumbo airliner.
French people can be extremely indulgent with regard to the human frailties of their leaders, as to their own, but they have absolutely no patience for imbecility. The fact of Sarkozy being dumped by his wife, who is throwing away a life in the Elysee Palace, limos, designer dresses and jewelry, vacations in the presidential jet (which is sure to be a double-decker A-380 with two levels, a flying Versailles) and all the other perks just to get away from him is not going to be lost on the subway-riding public.This could well be the first nail in the coffin of his public image.
Sarkozy is not a normal Frenchman. His parents were immigrants and he may not even be sure what country he is leading. He may not speak French with a thick foreign accent like Napoleon Bonaparte, whose father actually fought as a maquisard against the 18th century French occupation of Corsica, but he may be a little overmuch of a striver.
One thing is for sure, if he turns out to be a bad fit for French society, they won’t suffer him to hang around until his term expires in 2012, as the Americans are wont to do with their losers. If a consensus is reached that he is doing an unsatisfactory job he will have to leave.Or watch the streets fill up…
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Posted on 10/18/2007
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