Running Again

What will be Nicolas Sarkozy's trump card for winning the 2012 election? What topic will he decide to make the focal point of his campaign? There is speculation that it may be gay marriage. I was surprised to read this since I thought he had already come out in favor of this assault on traditional marriage, but I was confusing this issue with gay adoption, something he has condoned. (Note: How can you condone gay adoption and not, implicitly, condone gay marriage at the same time?) Here is an article from Atlantico.

"There are not many social issues on which Nicolas Sarkozy will be able to move forward significantly during the campaign. He won't budge on the legalization of marijuana, or on the right of foreigners to vote, or on gay adoption. The only gimmick he's thinking about is gay marriage." An off-the-record confidential disclosure from a cadre of the UMP party. He goes on: "David Cameron surprised everyone in Great Britain on this issue."

And in fact, during the recent convention of his party in Manchester, the British Prime Minister revealed he was "in the process of consulting for the purpose of legalizing gay marriage." And he justified this shift in policy thus: "To those who express reservations, I say this: yes, it is about equality, but it is also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the links that unite us (…) I support gay marriage because I am a conservative."

Cameron has a sense of contrariness. For while opponents of gay marriage present themselves as defenders of traditional values, he turns the argument on its head, and implies that, at bottom, it is better to have a family, even gay, than no family at all.

Note: This is similar to the argument put forth by some priests that any religion, even Islam, is better than no religion at all.

Could it be that the probable candidate of the ruling party in France, inspired by this initiative, will introduce factors into his platform that tend toward greater recognition of a homosexual couple?

Note: Does anyone know of any gesture on Sarkozy's part that indicates hostility towards gay marriage? Has he ever said he's against it? It seems to me that long ago he said that he was personally against it, but he knew that many were favorable, and he was the president of all the people, not just a few, implying he would do what the "people" wanted. The Socialist people, that is…

Marine Le Pen has always taken an opposing stand. Let's hope she sticks to it.

Remember that during the 2007 campaign, side by side with the Sarkozy who hoped to create a ministry of immigration and national identity and who said he would clean up the ghettos with a power hose, we cold distinguish the profile of another Sarkozy: the apostle of affirmative action who abolished the "double sentence", as he himself used to enjoy pointing out.

Note" The "double sentence" refers to the two penalties that were given to a foreign criminal: time spent in a French prison and deportation.

If he seems to be intent upon leading a very right-wing oriented campaign for the first round, in order to stymie the Front National, Nicolas Sarkozy knows too that he conquered through transgression and through his ability to take his adversary by surprise. Even though he seeks a second term, the president will have to appear like a new man, promising a rupture with the rupture. And after all, wasn't gay marriage legalized in 2005 in Spain where the weight of religion is certainly more important than in France?

Note: The "rupture with the rupture" is a reference to Sarkozy's promise in 2007 to bring about a rupture with the past. Now he will have to bring about another rupture.

We can assume that all of Sarkozy's ruptures are identical: "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

The article is spot on in its description of Sarkozy's campaign strategy. Before the first round, he is suddenly cloaked in the banners of traditionalism, a patriot who loves France and her great heritage, who wants nothing more than to protect her from criminals and terrorists. Having survived the first round he then adopts the left-wing agenda, in this case gay marriage. It worked before, it may work again.

Some readers at Le Salon Beige commented on this article:

- I think that what happened in 1981 will happen again in 2012. Giscard, the "right-wing" president lost the election because the voters on the right didn't want him anymore. Today, I would greatly prefer a Hollande victory over Sarkozy, with all due respect to certain professional journalists who say "anything but the Left." For as my father used to say: "It is better to have a real Socialist in front of you than a disguised Socialist."

- Please, I hope he goes through with it, and we will find ourselves with 25/25/30 result before the second round. I don't like Marine and the compromises her father made with Chirac (see below), but at least we'll be rid of this gang of clowns that have been living off the fat of the land for so long!!! When you realize that an election such as the last one is won or lost by 100,000 votes, if only those who abstain (and they are not from the Left, according to reports) would vote one little time, just once!

Note: By 25/25/30 he is indicating that he hopes for a three-way battle in the second-round. However, this is unlikely. And how do the election rules deal with such a situation?

Note: The reader demonstrated what he meant by "compromises her father made with Chirac" with a quote from Jean-Marie Le Pen:

"As soon as I go up in the polls, I'll send you one of my stupid comments and you can keep the tax collector at a distance."

I have no idea where the reader got this particular quote, but it fits in completely with what I have heard about Jean-Marie Le Pen, namely, that all those provocative cracks, all those offensive anti-Semitic, pro-Islam, anti-this, anti-that comments from Le Pen were calculated and orchestrated to coincide with an election, in order to see to it that so-and-so, in this case Chirac, won and the Left lost. Jean-Marie Le Pen actually sacrificed the Front National and its members, many of whom worked diligently for him and hoped for change through the electoral system. But he never had any intention of winning. He just wanted a big tax break and a sinecure as the voice of the opposition. So in a very real way he is a major Establishment player.

He not only betrayed his party, he gave a bad name to the principles of tradition, sovereignty, and patriotism, since these notions have now become indissolubly linked to the "extreme-right" and the "fascistic" Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The photo is from October 2011 and shows Sarkozy jogging through the woods at Versailles.