The Other School of Economics

Prince Sarkozy

French politics, journalism, new media, irreverence… all in one post.
Revisting what is actually left of the mainstream debate around Sarkozy.

Martians and non-French speaking internet travellers might have noticed the proliferation of a curious set of tags: #sarkozy #nicolassarkozyeverywhere (nicolas sarkozy everywhere) as well as the recently uber-trending #jeansarkozypartout (jean sarkozy everywhere).
They are a digital tribute to the French omni-hyper-president and a celebration of his management style, which has developed over the years from his debut as Jacques Chirac’s protégé – before betraying him – to Minister of Interior an finally President.
Sarkozy’s story is interesting as the man does not necessarily convey a sense of Machiavellian puppeteer crafting his web of power behind the scene. He rather resembles the caricature of the used-car salesman: not very brainy, a bit rough with his manners, a bit ‘nouveau riche’, fascinated by the attributes of wealth (trophy wife, powerful friends in the Top End of town, jet set life and all the perks that come with it)

Nicolas & Carla: give the plebe a bit of soap opera content – source

A few years before his election he was perceived as the ultimate looser and traitor in politics (having backed a losing opponent to Chirac).
So how did he manage to make such a come back and get elected? And how is he managing to stick to his position?

The comeback: playing the populist card is always a short term wining strategy.

To cut it short, he belongs, alongside George W Bush and Silvio Berlusconi, to a breed of conservative politicians treated with contempt by their liberal (in the American sense of the word) and labour opponents, who manage to appeal to the mainstream and have succeeded in blurring the traditional divide Left-Right. They have courted the middle class with the traditional values of the right (law, order, and everyone in bed by 9pm…) sprinkled with some modern day bits of consumerism: work hard, accept the laws corporate-capitalism, get informed through the mainstream media “and we’ll all right…”
In France the programmed acceptance of the laws of corporate-capitalism have been derailed by the Credit Crisis, which has forced Sarkozy to declare his famous “Le Laissez-Faire, c’est fini / The Laissez-faire is over”. The reason was that a little bit of social veneer had to be incorporated into the political communication to appease the public opinion as the collapse of the financial markets turned into an economic crisis..
The other layer of veneer applied in his government was to open it to a certain form of bi-partisanship and enrol Labour (Socialistes) figures as ministers.

However the core of the conservative agenda and more importantly the permanent arm-twisting of the media have not gone away from Sarkozy’s program.

It is the relationship with, and usage of, the media that is of particular interest here, as it ends-up serving the centre piece of the sarko-paradigm: his ego.
The strategy is based on:
- Appetite for managing the media (direct interference to change the public broadcasting system to suit his views)
- Friendships among the media establishment (close relationship to tabloids and commercial TV channels)
- A strategy to saturate the media leaving little space for the opposition or for the media to cast a more critical eye over the performance of his government. (Enrolment of the ultimate trophy wife: Carla Bruni in the role of First Decoy and alibi with the Left)
Such an hyper-bloated ego who strives on a form of ‘revenge to take on the rest of the system’: this type of angry underdog mentality might be ok for a young-and-up-coming entrepreneur in the silicon valley but is frankly incompatible with the duties of the state-man.

The mind-boggling element of the story is that it is done in whole day light, “au vu et au su de tous” and yet, it seems to have worked. So far.

A recap of a few memorable moments of the Sarko-saga highlighting the various facettes of the issue.

- His conservative ultra-right side.
In Oct-Nov 2005 civil unrest and riots spread across poor housing projects (cités HLM) in various parts of France. A series of riots involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings went on for 20 nights.
Whilst the root cause of these events was the tension building up among the juvenile population, the behaviour of the then Minister of interior (hence Chief Cop) did not appease things. Quite the the contrary he seemed to entertain a certain “strategy of tension” by using a tough semantics towards the youth, in order to indicate to the mainstream voters that we would tackle the problem head-on and sanitise the suburbs from the scum (racaille) that was growing there.
This stand proved to be a very useful asset to get the votes of the ultra-right a few years later at the presidential election.

Sarko-cops

- His moody and erratic behaviour.
The potential psychological issues that Sarkozy faces have been highlighted well before the 2007 presidential campaign. His swinging moods, hyper-activity, latent aggressiveness, and perpetual need try hard to prove himself have been well documented by a range of people who got to know him. However it was always going to be an interesting moment of truth when the know issues would surface on the public stage.
A most memorable moment remains the “casse-toi pauvre con” (literally: “Fuck-you, poor jerk”) given off-the-cuff to the visitor of an agricultural show who refused to shake the presidential hand. People will appreciate the consensual nature of the intervention.

short and sweet: to the point.

- The control of the media is an on going saga, too rich and too long for this post.
Direct intimidation, pressure to sack journalists who would report on him in a manner he does not appreciate, suing.
Maybe the best way to grasp the issue is to compare the subservient attitude of the French media with the standard treatment given to the Australian PM on ABC’s 7:30 Report or Lateline.
We are talking about two different worlds: On the French side, the prepared questions, the platitudes, the lack of incisiveness, are absolutely appalling. This is more a monarch dealing with the court than an elected president accountable in front of the media.

John Howard grilled by Kerry O’Brien on ABC’s 7:30 report

Sarkozy interviewed in a parody of journalism by TV anchors vetted and agreed by him

So, all that being said, where is the opposition to Sarkozy?

The question is actually not that irreverent and incongruous for we know that a strong and healthy opposition is actually a service done to democracy and a condition to the success of incumbent government. (Although this view seems to be more accepted in the Anglo-Saxon Westminster system than in French politics).
The Socialist party is clearly not doing its job as main opposition party. The space is left to some elements of the right (democrat party centre-right) and to a fairly new non-mainstream press leveraging social media and citizen journalism.
The most notable outlets are rue89, contre-info, Marianne Magazine, Mediapart. They show that, to their credit, some in the print & online media are actually trying hard.
Contrary to Australia where ABC and SBS fight to maintain a high-standard and independend line (see Julian Morrow’s 2009 Andrew Olle Lecture), it is the television side that is failing miserably in France.
The weapon of choice of those new-media? Rigorous journalism, participative investigation, diversity of contributions, but also humour, irreverence, caricature and laughter to denounce, highlight, reveal, flag the abuse and abuses.

The stories that have entertained us lately are:
- the nomination of Jean Sarkozy – the 23 year old son – at the helm of the agency managing the development of the Paris Business district ‘La Défense’ (Agency’s budget: 115m Euros / La Défense district = 3 350 000 m² of offices, 150,000 employees in 2,500 companies… the kid is 23 and still at Uni) . The total lack of academic and professional qualifications outraged the general population. A petition was launched and Sarko-son was forced to back down. Not without offering himself the mindboggling opportunity to go on the 8pm national news bulletin to comment on his decision not to go for the job.

Monsieur fils offers himself a slice of the evening news on national TV to chat about his job opportunities. fyi, people…

- and a fairly innocuous Facebook update from Sarkozy regarding his whereabouts during the fall of the Berlin Wall. He implied that he was in Berlin the night the Wall fell. It did not take long for a few journalists to confirm that the sarko-claim to have been on the fore front of the event was totally bogus. Sarkozy came to Berlin as the picture attests but only days after the event. The affaire even got a little bit of media coverage abroad (review compiled by @GillesKLEIN).

Re-writing history. Re-engraving for that matter.

His obsession to rewrite history and put himself under the spotlights has been a very fertile source of inspiration for citizen cartoonists and caricaturists showing that the Gallic sense of humour is not dead…

There is something ironically Nixon-ian in what comes out Sarkozy’s performance. He has gone beyond the point where people can just disagree with him because they don’t share his political views. His obsession to control the information, his contempt for journalists and his promptness to modify facts to shape his own truth has unfortunately led people to believe that he actually is “a crook”. The difference is that mainstream voters have chosen to either:
- ignore it out of apathy towards a class of politicians that will not reform itself, or
- treat him with laughter

No frontal and political opposition with serious prospect of unseating him has appeared so far.

We’ll keep watching…Good night, and good luck.

i am not a crook

We will keep watching. Good night, and good luck.

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Coda

- Sarkozy Gallore: the politician who gets photoshopped *INTO* history:

Sarkozy on the Moon – posted by lafillelabas

Sarkozy at Yalta : posted by Paul

Sarkozy knocks the Berlin Wall down : posted by Paul

Sarkozy actually invented the MoonWalk : posted by Christophe

Sarkozy WAS Mstislav Rostropovich : posted by NKN

Sarkozy at the 1968 Mexico Olympics : Posted by NKN

Sarkozy was with Martin Luther King : posted by Sandra

Sarkozy actually met Jesus: posted by NKN

Sarkozy used to be the leader of the Beatles : posted by Gaet

Sarkozy was on Apollo 11: posted by JeSuisLa

Sarkozy master of the McDonaldisation of politics : posted by woumpah

- Pipole & tabloid time…

After this dose of fascinating considerations on el President, we should actually connclude in a Shrek-ian manner. Maybe this whole palaver is about love. A simple guy, a bit insecure, a bit shrewd as well, who just wanted to prove everyone that he could get the top job, get the girl from the magazines and aspire to spend some time wearing boxer-shorts on the beach… La vie quoi.

The careful orchestration of paparazzi pictures to entertain the good people, as a strategy to avoid real debate on policy issues

The ultra-conservative right has had to eat its hat twice: when Sarkozy appointed figures of the left in his government; and when he married Carla Bruni, figure of the Parisian-wealthy-arty-left-scene… in short: everything they loathe.

{ LF_O }