Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
Neo-Bonapartism? A parallel between Nicolas Sarkozy and ...
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<strong>Neo</strong>-<strong>Bonapartism</strong>? A <strong>parallel</strong> <strong>between</strong> <strong>Nicolas</strong> <strong>Sarkozy</strong> <strong>and</strong> Napoleon III<br />
of his uncompromising temper. The end result is a political caricature at the opposite of the<br />
expected outcome. For instance, the president pushed his “parler vrai” beyond presidential<br />
limits of the French etiquette when he turned out literally insulting a French citizen. As<br />
explained by Marqu<strong>and</strong> “Buzz off, you idiot – is a charitable translation of what he said to a<br />
man in the crowd who refused to shake his h<strong>and</strong>s” (2008). This incident that occurred in the<br />
Agriculture Salon of Paris in February 2008 echoed with a muscular verbal exchange with a<br />
fisherman of Guilvinec in November 2007, <strong>and</strong> even before while he treated one of his<br />
collaborators (David Martinon) of “imbecile” (idiot/fool) in front of CBS’s cameras in October<br />
2007 during the recording of the 60 minutes program. The president verbal impulsiveness<br />
engendered a wave of consternation <strong>and</strong> exasperation throughout the country. “Can he<br />
incarnate France with dignity <strong>and</strong> legitimacy?” wondered Dominique Moisi, a senior advisor at<br />
the French Institute for International Relations (Harriss, 2008).<br />
Actually, this interrogation was premonitory since the worst was yet to come in terms of<br />
discourtesy <strong>and</strong> public disrespect, this time vis a vis foreign leaders. As reported by Slate<br />
Magazine, a particularly epic diner held by the French head of state at the Elysee the 17 th of<br />
April 2009 in honor of French deputies was marked by a barely-believable medley of cutting<br />
remarks. Accordingly, Barack Obama “was elected since two months <strong>and</strong> never managed a<br />
ministry in his life: there are numerous issues on which he has no position”; José Manuel Barroso<br />
(the president of the European Commission) was “completely absent from the G20”; Angela<br />
Merkel “rallied my (<strong>Sarkozy</strong>’s) position once she acknowledged the damages inflicted to her<br />
banking <strong>and</strong> car industries”; <strong>and</strong> finally José Louis Zapatero is “not very intelligent” (2007).<br />
Consequently, a clamor of indignation popped up throughout the international press, <strong>and</strong><br />
A website dedicated to this project is available starting Dec 7 th 2010 at: http://www.aui.ma/personal/~Y.Assaoui/<br />
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