Our friend Robert Agostinelli, expert on all things French, writes Le Figaro, and shares here a version, an 11th-hour appeal to sanity: why France must re-elect Nicolas Sarkozy. Imperfect, yes. But not Hollande, and the terrible consequences that his socialist government will deliver.
In a mere day you, the French people, have an opportunity to decide your fate and that of your children. It will be a day when you can commit to stop the mayhem created by the traditional parties, of both the right and left, which have both committed to a “contrat social”—which has left the country near bankrupt and it’s people poorer for it.
I am American. I am one of the President’s “rich” friends. Yes I am the target of disdain of Mr. Hollande and those who share a collective pursuit of utopia of “fairness” and the certain ignorance of how and what allows a nation to enrich its citizens.
As an American you may discount my perspective on its face, but do not discount the truth: These very same leaders who have betrayed you have, by political necessity, conditioned their followers to believe that the “American way ” of Capitalism is, as Mr. Hollande has stated, the “faceless enemy of France “.
This is the essence of the grand lie that has led to the erosion of a great nation, that has caused France to question its heroic origins and to deny the people their sovereign Rights.
I appeal to you, on behalf of your children and my five French children: Consider this reality as you submit your ballot on Sunday.
Nicolas Sarkozy is imperfect. He has made mistakes. But he remains the sole voice of reason and belief in you his compatriots.
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When he says the fundamental difference between himself and Mr. Hollande is that he wants less poor and his opponent wants less rich, it is simply true.
In the case of the former you have before you a rational optimist: a man who believes in you and your ability to best decide your fate, to create and embrace your dreams, to fulfil your right to work, to seek and gain achievement, to reap the rewards commensurate with this your just desserts.
This call for smaller government, less taxation, free trade, and reduced regulation is anathema to the traditional political class and its Dirigiste model which presumes the intellectual inadequacy of the French people and requires centralised controls to decide your life, your choices, your fate.
It is the ultimate pessimistic view. And it is therefore a deep insult to each and every one of you. It is the ideology of fear, the politics of divisiveness, the advocate of envy. Should this prevail, for those who govern, the outcome will be power and control. For the people of France, the outcome will be misery.
In the past France could absorb the effect of the contrat social because of the depth of the nation’s core values and, frankly, the strength of its capital base.
But after 40 years of erosion of the moral fabric, the elimination of military consequence, and the degradation of free enterprise, France’s ability to absorb such is gone. There is no more time to wait.
To those who are considering letting their dislike for Mr. Sarkozy prevail over their disdain for the philosophy of Mr. Hollande, think. Your rejection of the President will not be a vote of spite as much as it will be a vote for a suicide pact. The slow withdrawal of the oxygen of freedom has eroded the French consciousness, and had an intoxicating consequence for too many who now cling to nihilism and repeat the calculated mantra that “nothing will change.” What must be rejected tomorrow is the Left’s of subtle and corrosive politics of deluding the people of a profound nation.
Nicolas Sarkozy is your President. He has proven that he understands the concept that the greatness of France, and its hope for the future, are found not in the select few who seek to rule, but in its people, their talents, and their abilities, their freedoms.
Tomorrow, France has but only one rational option. It is Sarkozy. Yes apply pressure on him. Yes, demand that he deliver on his promises. But to do otherwise—to reject someone who can lead for someone who is by nature incapable of the same—will confirm defeat of the grand spirit of France by.
Francois Hollande is a bureaucrat. In my country we have an inept and failed President who has redefined leadership to suit his ineptitude. He is known to “lead from behind.” Francois Hollande is an echo of the same canard; “Mr. Normal”. It is an abject joke. In America, we have seen what happens to a great nation when it selects an unaccomplished man to govern its affairs and, allegedly, lead. France cannot make the same mistake. It cannot want a presiding unaccomplished man in the Elysee. The merit and responsibility of the office requires the native capacity to lead. Nicolas Sarkozy has proven this capacity. Mr. Hollande has not, and will not.
On a Saturday night when Islam terrorists attempted to destroy the airport in Scotland, I witnessed your President take commander of the homeland. He did not consult, call a committee, worry if he was “rude” as if at some polite and sophisticated Parisian dinner party. He knew: This was war. And he led.
In Libya, Afghanistan, and with home- grown terrorists, he acted. He commanded. He inspired. In the European crisis, right or wrong—and I disagree with much—he led.
With allies and enemies, Sarkozy he commands.
Mr Hollande, again, by nature, is constitutionally incapable of the same. He is the son of the rich who lives the dream of escaping the rules while benefiting from the same. He is the true soft belly of the gauche caviar set. We have seen this exploitable elitism before, with the “useful idiots” that the red machine of the Soviet Union proclaimed would use to destroy us from within.
Mr Hollande’s smug self-satisfied faux reassurance is the cosmetics of this class. They have never stood for anything nor done anything. Only someone of this type cast could make DSK a credible alternative while logically replacing him. It is the triple back flip which only gauche could achieve and still look you in the eye and proclaim it’s real.
Sunday is France’s D-day for every vote. I urge you: Decide on the President and maintain the authority to demand he perform.
Choose the alternative and accept the fate of mediocrity and surrender without complaint.
Marine Le Pen, the social nationalist, made her decision long ago. Anarchy and chaos are the usual code of a bewildered mind. This is the close cousin of the gauche and it is for you to decide if you are to respect the soul of France or give in to this scourge of defeat.
You citizens of France are fortunate. You still control your destiny. Unless you give it up.