Let’s start with a historical reminder from an excerpt in Nice Premium the day after his inauguration: “For four years since his cunning arrival at the head of the UMP, he hoped, and not just while shaving, to be the candidate for the united right. He has achieved this goal, hence a certain emotion, more or less sincere depending on the political allegiance of the analyst.
Did it all start in Nice in June 1975 in Nice? Nicolas Sarkozy was only 20 years old and he attended the congress as a departmental delegate for the UDR (Union of Republican Democrats). Jacques Chirac, then Prime Minister under Valรฉry Giscard d’Estaing, gave the floor to Nicolas Sarkozy. His intervention in front of 6000 militants lasted twenty minutes. It was his first time testing himself in front of an audience. It was a success. He then knew he was cut out for this, that he would not fear big events or public and media pressure. Worse: he would love it. This exposure, this risk of judgment, would multiply his strength, his convictions, and compel him to always be better.”
Today, Monday, May 7, 2007, he is no longer the UMP candidate but the President of the French Republic. An important difference that he will have to know and learn to manage. If Nicolas Sarkozy has truly changed, he will manage. If not… the three dots are expressed by the title of Libรฉration, “Hard.” He has strived since his induction at the head of the UMP four years ago to rally at least 50% of voters behind his name. Mission accomplished. He did not need to change because the Right in France expected a man like him, firm and determined. “Hard” to imagine that the 47% of voters who did not vote for the UMP candidate could accept an unchanged Nicolas Sarkozy for five years.
He tried to reassure them in the first words of his speech at the Salle Gaveau: “My thoughts go to Madame Royal, I want to tell her that I have respect for her and for her ideas in which so many French people have recognized themselves […] A President of the Republic must love all the French.” He continued, serene and soothing: “I want to say that beyond political battle, beyond differences of opinion, there is only one France for me. I will be the President of all French people, I will speak to each of them. Tonight, it is not the victory of one France against another.” After the words in the speech, it will be necessary to utter the words in his Presidential deeds with caution, balance, and subtlety embodying the true change of President Sarkozy. Beyond words, the previous devout wish has not yet been applied. It must be. We heard, as an unfortunate downside, last night Nicolas Sarkozy’s guests at the Salle Gaveau whistle and boo Sรฉgolรจne Royal. Disrespect… We saw clashes between anti-Sarkozy militants and the police. We saw cars set on fire. Democratic disrespect. Nicolas Sarkozy will have to find the words so that his opponents do not reject the France of President Sarkozy. He will have to silence, as last night, and not just in front of cameras, all his close supporters who reject the Left-wing France.
More than a program and projects, this is what will be expected from President Nicolas Sarkozy. A man who instills respect, who extends a hand and to whom one wants to extend a hand.
