“Mr. Sarkozy may think it is smart politics to pander to racism and xenophobia. He has done it before. And, sadly, his harsh new tone has given him a quick boost in the polls.”
The quick boost means that French people agree and are kind of pretty racist in general. That’s much more scarier. Sarkozy knows he can use this angle. Just visit France and listen to discussions outside Paris. It’s pretty clear.
“Times are tough in France, but Mr. Sarkozy could have run a more elevated campaign. He has domestic achievements (pension reform) and international achievements (Libya). His main opponent, Mr. Hollande, has vague ideas and unrealistic economic proposals.”
But French don’t care about achievements. They never really do. It’s like normal, somehow. Sarkozy also knows he can’t really play on that because French culture is not about celebrating victories and the dude is on everybody’s nerves so all he can have is play on xenophobia and racism, knowing that there’s demand for that. Mr Hollande, I don’t even fucking know what he’s doing here. A snail is more fascinating than he is.
Don’t take it too seriously. We’ll go through it.