Nearly two hundred thousand UMP members are called to ratify, on May 28 and 29, the name, the new statutes, and the composition of the future political bureau during an internal consultation, Thursday and Friday.
If in terms of internal balance, Nicolas Sarkozy has well tied his proposal taking into account the weight and ambitions of the different factions and various protagonists, the desire to rename the party, the Republicans, at the party congress which will be held next Saturday, at Porte de la Villette in Paris, is harder to pass.
The syrupy explanation “On the left, they are first socialists and then republicans. We are republicans before being Gaullists, liberals, and centrists,” repeated ad nauseam, gives the impression of a pure marketing operation. If parties need to modernize, it will not be by turning them into a supermarket product.
Therefore, many remain attached to the UMP banner and are not very enthusiastic about changing it. According to a Harris Interactive poll published last Friday, 68% of the French and 40% of UMP sympathizers believe that “a political party should not have the right to appropriate the word ‘republican’”.
On this point, Nicolas Sarkozy is nevertheless taking the risk: a negative vote could appear as a disavowal, whereas posters, documents, and other gadgets stamped “The Republicans” have already been produced.
But, without a doubt, Nicolas Sarkozy is indeed back and, as he says in the letter addressed to the militants: “it’s time to take action”. While waiting and hoping to become the president of the Republic again, he is already the president of… the Republicans.
In fact, it’s a bit like generics in pharmacology: it doesn’t have the name but has the same effect.
Oh, Sarko, his need to command is truly visceral!
Alas, to better understand, one would have to ask good old Dr. Freud…
