On Friday, August 24, and Saturday, August 25, the first public gathering of the new association “Friends of Nicolas Sarkozy” will take place in Nice, where over 2,000 people are expected at the Villa Matisse of the Cimiez Arena.
Announced on the evening of the defeat on May 6 (and the former President’s announced withdrawal from political life), the organization was created at the initiative of several former ministers of Nicolas Sarkozy, including Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, to “keep alive” the ideas of the former President, defend the excellent record of Nicolas Sarkozy, remain “attentive to how his presidential record will be presented in the public debate” and “keep alive the ideas and values he defended throughout his term.”
The founding members state, as explained by the JDD (Journal du Dimanche), that their motivation is neither “political nor partisan.” However, this intention remains to be proven: several events suggest that the organization could quickly become an additional voice in the cacophonous discourse of the right.
So what significance should be given to this unexpected friendly gathering?
Is it a place of remembrance, a right to inventory, an underground political force, or a hope that Nicolas Sarkozy will return to politics?
In truth, “the absentee” will be the most striking presence of this “imagined community” event, reflecting on the past to imagine a future.
They will celebrate “his” personal charm and vivacity and forget his undeniable lack of judgment and his instability anchored in confused activism.
They will regret “his” tenacity, his propensity for unexpected and surprising decisions that was long his strength without acknowledging that it ultimately became the weakness of a vain man obsessed with success.
Furthermore, the citizens have judged accordingly, and the first rule in democracy is to recognize that voters are always right.
Therefore, yesterday’s majority finds itself, certainly with regret, as today’s parliamentary opposition.
So what more can one do than celebrate the nostalgia of the past?
But ultimately, in political life, isn’t the first task of an opposition to exist?
The second being to oppose, and, as the poet says, “It is the first step, after which the path to the stars will open to them!”
