Sarkozy's right wing policies alienating him from population

Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:58AM GMT

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Interview with Paolo Raffone, CIPI Foundation, Brussels. ‎

"... basically he has been left over, alone, and he has been trying desperately to save ‎himself with the alliance of conservatives in Europe, in Germany, but by doing so he ‎has alienated large sectors of the population." ‎

Analysts widely surmise that the French voting population will dump current President Nicolas Sarkozy due to his racist policies and apparent subservience to the US.

Press TV has interviewed Paolo Raffone of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels who shares his expertise and insights into the undoing of Sarkozy in the eyes of French citizens preparing to vote for the country's 2012 presidential election. What follows is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: Our other guest Mr. Budowski thinks that not so much the alliance with the US, but with Germany is the more important influence; however, when Sarkozy came to power in May of 2007 and took over the reigns from Jacque Chirac… under Chirac's rule France refused to join George W. Bush's so-called Coalition of the Willing to invade Iraq; however, under Sarkozy many experts say that Paris has basically turned into a total puppet of Washington.

How much do you think that this is affecting the negative image that many say that he has inside of his own country now?

Raffone: I tend to believe that the time of Sarkozy era is over because the environment in which he ruled is no more there. There is no more President Bush and the Bush dynasty is out of range.

He still has some friends of course in the Republican groups in the US and he gets strong support also from some people close to the Pentagon or the CIA. But apart from that he is a relic of the past.

So, basically he has been left over, alone, and he has been trying desperately to save himself with the alliance of conservatives in Europe, in Germany, but by doing so he has alienated large sectors of the population who traditionally were voting in France conservative, but with a state eye on the economy.

For these reasons he has really deceived most of the voters and so I am sure he will lose the election, or if he doesn't he will be in an impossible situation to lead the country.

Press TV: Why do you think that Sarkozy became so negative in dealing with the Muslims in general? We have almost seen an antagonistic type of perspective that he had with the Muslims in France.

Raffone: There are various reasons why this is shaping in this way, which are quite contradictory actually to the history of France especially from the conservative side because we have to see that his predecessors like Chirac and many others; they were pro-Arab; their links to the Persian Gulf region were very strong in all terms, economic and defense-like.

Sarkozy has shifted this in alliance with an alliance that he had to perform mostly with Israel interests and this is because of this own political history and his friends who brought him up being a mayor of a rich suburb of Paris up to the presidency.

Press TV: What do you mean exactly about his connection with Israel, that he had to do this - Can you explain and expand a little bit on exactly what you mean?

Raffone: Well, the political ascent of Mr. Sarkozy has been created by groups acting in France and in the US, which were quite close to the Jewish connection and it is not a matter of conspiracy, it is just a matter of names and people who were around him and who saw him as the right-winger sort of deliverer of right winger message after the sort of stiff-type of presidency that Chirac left.

So, this person has been pushed up. He was a promise; but then most of his supporters are no more there either because their age is very advanced or they have lost their positions and therefore he is now trying to pay service to those who helped him in the early times - I'm talking about the 1990s when he was pushed up.

And his policies are quite surprising because traditionally, I repeat, that France has been much more open to dialog with Persian Gulf states than with Israel. Sarkozy has changed this paradigm of long term history of France.

SC/MFB