Unease grows in Sarkozy's party over rightward lurch
Unease is growing in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party a week before a presidential election over his lurch to the right in pursuit of supporters of anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen. Some mainstream conservatives have voiced public dismay at his embrace of the campaign themes, language and even some proposals of Le Pen's National Front. In private conversations, doubts are widespread about the morality and effectiveness of the strategy.
In the last week, Sarkozy has repeatedly declared that there are too many foreigners in France and vowed to reduce legal immigration. Echoing a Le Pen proposal, he has called for police to be given greater license to shoot fleeing crime suspects.
"Even though I will vote for Nicolas Sarkozy on the second round, it's clearly my duty to ring the alarm bell about this strategy," Etienne Pinte, a UMP lawmaker, told Reuters. "All through the campaign, we felt there were misgivings among a number of parliamentary colleagues and the two former prime ministers about the exploitation of these extreme-right themes," Pinte said.
Asked whether the strategy drawn up by Sarkozy's political guru Patrick Buisson, a former extreme-right newspaper editor, had not strengthened the far right, Raffarin said the time for analysis would come after May 6. "We are in a battle now, and in a battle, the honorable thing is to be loyal," he said.
But the president is unrepentant about his strategy.
"When Marine Le Pen says the sun is yellow and the sea is blue, do I have to say the opposite?" he asked on France 2 television when questioned about his embrace of some of her ideas and proposals. "Aren't we entitled to talk about immigration? Don't we have the right to talk about the role of Europe and its function to protect us rather than expose us to globalization?" he added in an interview published by Le Parisien daily on Sunday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/29/us-france-election-strategy-idUSBRE83S06520120429
Sarkozy is dragging France to the right with his campaign themes. Good to see that it is creating problems in his party. After he loses, perhaps his own party will reject him in the future.