In France's Regional Elections, Nicolas Sarkozy's center right party UMP suffered major losses, in part because the President's supporters abstained from voting at all.
Why?
The financial crisis and recession have hurt governing parties everywhere, but some of the blame clearly goes to President Sarkozy himself.
Here are five of the biggest mistakes which have hurt his popularity and credibility--most crucially with his own supporters:
1. Allowing his son to
become a candidate to
head EPAD, which runs La Défense
Prince Jean has not even graduated law
school yet. The effort to drop him into a key post as head of
2. Launching a pointless debate on
"National Identity"
Why? The French LIKE Sarkozy's promise to
get tough with crime and expect him to deliver on it (which he has not yet
managed to do.) Why this offensive and distracting sideshow? It hurt feelings
and awakened the beast of the Far Right--to absolutely no purpose whatsoever!
3. Appointing Frédéric Mitterand Culture
Minister
Poaching the left for talent worked
wonders with DSK, Bernard Kouchner and others. Claiming the Mitterand
name was apparently so irresistable that Sarkozy ignored warnings about Mitterand's
book La Mauvaise Vie in which he recounts sex tourism with Thai "garçons"
(translate that however you like). No problem until Minister of Culture
Mitterand attacked the
4. Encouraging Valérie Pécresse, Minister
of Higher Education, to sling mud in a negative campaign that disgusted Ile de
France voters.
What a weird, inept, ill-considered
campaign we just saw! Sarkozy parachuted party hacks who knew nothing about the
local region into key positions then acted surprized when locals didn't
feel like voting. A strange mistake..
5. Betraying the spirit and the
promise of Grenelle.
After a brilliant start in making the
environment a centerpiece of this political strategy, Sarkozy abandoned agreed
on goals, one after another --clean water, reduction of pesticides, carbon tax. Under
pressure from farmers he is reported to have said that he's had enough of
ecology! A major error, one which allows the left to pick up the mantel
of saving the environment in a Green-Socialist alliance that Sarko had a good
chance of breaking...