There’s been excited chatter that Nicolas Sarkozy, a possible successor/rival to Jacques Chirac on the French ‘right’ may be more of a friend of the free market and, for that matter, the US than the disgraced and failing Chirac. I’d be more skeptical. Sarkozy, like Chirac, is more of an opportunist than anything else.

Via the EU Referendum blog, here’s yet another reminder that free marketers are likely to be disappointed in the event of a Sarkozy presidency:

“And, to demonstrate that we really cannot expect anything significant by way of a free trade agenda, should Sarkozy get elected president in 2007, he called for the revival of the “community preference” ensuring that “Europe bought European” goods – especially from its small companies. He rounded off by criticising Peter Mandelson for failing adequately to defend Europe’s interests, saying that the EU should make more use of the World Trade Organisation’s anti-dumping clauses. Rounding off, Sarkozy then defended the CAP and attacked the British budget rebate as an anomaly that had to be suppressed.”