Big guns join forces

Divide and conquer seemed to be the motto of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, when he first came to power, cutting swathes into the opposition by appointing “the most able” to government regardless of their political persuasion.

It was a break with the past. Out with the old way of doing politics and reaching out to those who wanted real reform for the country.

But now it seems a previously weak and divided opposition has managed to join forces on at least one issue – the behaviour of the man himself.

In an actually quite astonishing move, 17 leading figure from across the political spectrum signed an open letter in the weekly news magazine “Marianne” condemning what they considered to be Sarkozy’s presidential rule as an “elected monarchy” and calling for France’s proud republican traditions to be upheld

Now this was not just a bunch of political nobodies from some splinter group putting their names to a tirade of accusations.

The most notable signatory was perhaps unsurprisingly Segolene Royal, last year’s defeated Socialist party candidate in the presidential run-off. There was another former candidate, the so-called “third man” and leader of the recently formed centre-right Mouvement démocrate (MoDem), François Bayrou, as well as Dominique de Villepin, the last prime minister under Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

So in French domestic political terms these are definite heavyweights. And they were joined by the current mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, a former leader of the Greens, Noël Mamère, the Communist André Gérin, a member of parliament for the right wing nationalist party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and even Pierre Lefranc, a former cabinet secretary to the Fifth Republic’s founder, Charles de Gaulle.

They all criticise his blurring of the separation of church and state as well as his too-close relationship with some giants of the media, which they say threatens to undermine the freedom of the press. They also call for a foreign policy with a true morale backbone, founded on the basis of the defence of human rights, driven by the national interest but determined also by the need to help build a Europe able to face the challenges of the 21st century. That, they say, is at the core of the French republican tradition.

Ordinarily this story wouldn’t really be the stuff of headlines, but with Sarkozy free-falling in the public opinion polls, the tide of protest is growing, and as the magazine itself says, a letter from a group representing such diverse political opinions is a first in French politics.

There’s been little reaction from Sarkozy himself. Instead he has left it to his government ministers to lead the charge in his defence. First and foremost among them was the man most French seem to think is doing a pretty decent job - in spite of the president – his prime minister, François Fillon.

Out on the stump for the upcoming local elections, Fillon called the attacks anti-democratic and a real case of sour grapes from those who had in any case failed in last year’s presidential elections.

He also quite pointedly lashed out against de Villepin – a fellow member or Sarkozy’s centre-right ruling Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) – who has himself never actually run for elected office of any sort.

The letter, said Fillon, represented an “unprecedented violence” concentrated on the president himself by those whose only aim was to halt the pace of reform.

Sarkozy also of course received the backing of the UMP’s spokesman, Yves Jego, who dismissed the declaration as an attempt by the opponents to gain the upper hand against a man they had all lost out to already at the polls.

And the cabinet minister for higher education, Valérie Pécresse, also rallied behind the president, saying the letter was a scandalous way to mask the sheer lack of ideas and vision among the opposition.

So the case has been made by those wary of both Sarkozy’s style and policy – really the first time in nine months that they’ve managed to reach a general consensus.

Meanwhile Sarkozy’s supporters not unsurprisingly dismiss the claims as mere hogwash.

This is a debate that’s likely to rage for a while yet, and it’s also interesting to note that even when he’s not saying or doing anything himself, Sarkozy still seems to provide headline writers with more than enough material.

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