Charles Bremner defines, “encapsulates” Sarkozy’s 10-month old presidency

by The3rdColumn Tue Mar 18th, 2008 at 10:31:38 PM EDT Edit My Story… In his latest blog, Sarkozy season II: back to basics, The Times’ Paris correspondent Charles Bremner declares: Three sentences from Sarkozy over the past two months encapsulate everything he has done to disappoint and irritate. Firstly, these three sentences disappoint and irritate because they are true and we all know people don’t like the truth about the state of affairs being bandied about by their politicians, let alone by their national leader. Re: 1) Carla et moi, c’est du sérieux (It’s serious, Carla and me.) TRUE. Well, what’s wrong with that? After all, he proved by marrying her that the love affair was serious, didn’t he? Now that he’s done it, people must get over it. That said, I agree, the voters did not hesitate to pummel the UMP in the last local election partly to “punish” Mr Sarkozy’s very public lifestyle with his mistress turned wife/First Lady, something which is rather anathema to many French. I believe (and hope we all do, including Mr Bremner I should hope) Sarkozy will have learned a lesson, eg, to keep his private amorous life well out of the public eye. (Must admit, Sarkozy’s display of something so ‘unpresidential’ also seriously got my goat!) Re: 2) Les caisses sont vides (The treasury is empty) ABSOLUTELY TRUE and our dear friends who are not French should know that part of the problem is caused by the French themselves who cannot go beyond the permanent ‘assisté’ mentality. Re: 3) Casse-toi, pauvre con (Piss off, jerk, or equivalent. …/… A glimpse of hot temper and lack of self-restraint) DEFINITELY TRUE. Unfortunately, people prefer their leaders to be hypocritical about things. I am however disappointed that Charles Bremner, considered an excellent reporter and a journalist hors pair with clearly a loyal and die-hard following who believe that Bremner is the ultimate dream writer, is only able to pick out only 3 sentences to define, i.e., encapsulate everything he (Sarkozy) has done…, Sarkozy’s 10-month record following the May 2008 presidential election, Charles is guilty of resorting to a bit of crap reporting; lets face it — Sarkozy started with a stack of French problems against him that couldn’t be resolved 10 months after he was elected, no way! So to expect him to fix the ills of the nation, considered the sick man of Europe, in so short a time, is hardly realistic. Remember “les caisses sont vides!” In that sense, Charles Bremner is doing his readers great disservice by infering that Sarkozy should have kept quiet about the state coffers being empty. Why should he keep quiet about it? It’s the truth! Shouldn’t the French be forewarned about the truth? Don’t they have the right to know that “les caisses sont vides!” ? If only Charles could use his great talent for digging info and scrape well below the surface of the 10-month old Sarkozy presidency, instead of constantly resorting to hollow journalistic ‘rhetorics’ where the Sarkozy presidency is concerned, he’d find that the Sarkozy-Fillon tandem have had achievements albeit modest in trying to turn France from being the sick man/ICU case of Europe into a “convalescing patient.” But I leave Charles to do the digging — he is the professional reporter/journalist/blogger who owes his readers a bit more than just regularly dissing bad news. In fine, someone judged that particular post of Charles as being well-balanced and witty, I’m afraid, witty it may be but well-balanced, certainly it isn’t. NB: I am well aware that this post may not sit well with the majority of ET diarists here whom I’ve noticed to be diehard anti-Sarkozy, but the truth of the matter is that this post is more in keeping with my privilege to criticise a lopsided article published in a mainstream ‘broadsheet’, eg, The Times. If this diary is deemed to defend Mr Sarkozy’s presidency, so be it.

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Display: ThreadedMinimalNestedFlatFlat UnthreadedDynamic ThreadedDynamic Minimal Rate? YesNoHide Charles Bremner defines, “encapsulates” Sarkozy’s 10-month old presidency | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden) | Post A Comment ICU case yourself! (4.00 / 3) If this diary is deemed to defend Mr Sarkozy’s presidency, so be it. I don’t think it’s all that interesting to attack or defend Sarkozy. (To comment on his presidency, though, yes). At least some of us here have always said there was nothing behind the facade, that Sarko was all hat and no cattle, that he was just another populist politician, and I think we are being proved right. The Sarko-person is of no great interest. Charles Bremner is a hired Murdoch hack and is of no interest either. OTOH, there are assumptions about France in your diary that are serious and important. part of the problem is caused by the French themselves who cannot go beyond the permanent ‘assisté’ mentality. The famous mentalité d’assistés that anyone on the right trundles out without a second’s further thought, just like US anti-welfare slogans (“welfare queens”), or “scroungers” in the UK. But who are the people who are being “assisted”, helped? How much do they get? Are you talking about unemployment benefit? Family allowances? Minimum living wage (RMI)? Are you including the health service? And are you showing any proof that the existence of a social solidarity net is really a significant incentive to large numbers of people to consider that the world owes them a living? If that were the case, wouldn’t it be logical to also consider the wealthier part of the population as assistés by numerous tax breaks and niches, and cuts in taxes on higher incomes, wealth, and estates, carried out under Chirac since 2002 and lately again by Sarkozy? trying to turn France from being the sick man/ICU case of Europe into a “convalescing patient.” In our last exchange about that mendacious CER report, you cried off, citing exhaustion. I hope you’re going to find the energy to substantiate what you write this time. Sorry if this sounds aggressive, but what you say here is offensive and misguided. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind by afew (afew_at_europe_dot_com) on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 04:49:48 AM EDT [ Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] This will be my last diary in ET (4.00 / 2) Afew,If you find that my statement about the French assité mentalité offensive and misguided, let me begin by saying that I consider your sub-heading “ICU case yourself!” equally offensive and misguided.I’m not sure why you felt what I said there “offensive and misguided” but I have a suspicion that it is because it’s coming from one who has openly admitted to being right-wing as your slight of hand attack suggested: “The famous mentalité d’assistés that anyone on the right trundles out without a second’s further thought,…” I don’t think it’s all that interesting to attack or defend Sarkozy. (To comment on his presidency, though, yes). At least some of us here have always said there was nothing behind the facade, that Sarko was all hat and no cattle, that he was just another populist politician, and I think we are being proved right. The Sarko-person is of no great interest. The Sarko person is of great interest, like it or not. You may not like him but HE is president of France and that means, rightly or wrongly, France is seen by many, particularly abroad, through his persona both as a “person” and as a politician-leader; difficult to separate the “person” from the “president” (de Gaulle who epitomised France during a certain era set the precedent and many have followed the lead.) To cut off any comment pertaining to his person as “not interesting” is not realistic; proof is tons of ink have been used to describe, ridicule and analyse him. Charles Bremner is a hired Murdoch hack and is of no interest either. “Hack” is hard, but there is an element of truth. He is not freelance; you, I or many here may not like what he writes but his articles are normally well researched. What he writes may not be of interest to you but they should be of interest to many French because he writes about France and the French, foibles and all, and what he says in his articles contribute in some way to what the English-speaking people of this world may want to know about France and the French. The famous mentalité d’assistés that anyone on the right trundles out without a second’s further thought, just like US anti-welfare slogans (“welfare queens”), or “scroungers” in the UK. But who are the people who are being “assisted”, helped? How much do they get? Are you talking about unemployment benefit? Family allowances? Minimum living wage (RMI)? Are you including the health service? And are you showing any proof that the existence of a social solidarity net is really a significant incentive to large numbers of people to consider that the world owes them a living? Listen afew, I am not at all inclined to do data mining. If you want percentages of sectors of the French population that receive state handouts, I haven’t got them right here and now but I’m pretty sure they are somewhere on the net. What gobsmacks me is that the French “mentalité d’assistés” line seems to have aroused an incredible political ideological backlash right here at ET. Yet you yourself categorised it as “famous” — which simply goes to show that there is a perception, a strong one, if we were to go by your own adjective, and that the French suffers from this reputation. To be perfectly honest, I did find your questions a bit puerile. But to answer them, yes, we are talking about them and possibly about a lot more. There are certainly people in France who end up being supported by the state who hate the idea and would do anything to change, but equally there are MANY from all sides of the political ideological spectrum who take advantage, i.e., left, right, far left, far right, etc. To deny that this does not exist is to close one’s eyes to some harsh realities about France. If that were the case, wouldn’t it be logical to also consider the wealthier part of the population as assistés by numerous tax breaks and niches, and cuts in taxes on higher incomes, wealth, and estates, carried out under Chirac since 2002 and lately again by Sarkozy? So we perhaps come to the crux of the matter — you view my mention of the French assisté mentality as an attack against the non-rich perhaps? There are those, rich and very rich, who pay 45% as Pierre had reported below, and perhaps more – and if you feel that tax breaks and niches, etc., are symptomatic of the assité mentalite too, you are somehow reinforcing the perception that the (“famous”) assité mentality mindset in France is there, wouldn’t you say? (I’m not sure that the rich or those who pay 45% in taxes outnumber those who don’t though.) Let me ask you something on the issue of taxes, how much more taxes do you believe the rich should pay in order to not belong to the assisté category? On this issue, wouldn’t you say that the high taxes could drive the brightest and the best to go somewhere where the tax regime is more benign? The so-called brain-drain. What is the percentage of bright young French engineers who go to study in the US and then remain because there is more opportunity there? I do not have a number, but Barosso quoted something like 80% the other day at the launch of the CER report. France (nor any other country) can afford this. In our last exchange about that mendacious CER report, you cried off, citing exhaustion. I hope you’re going to find the energy to substantiate what you write this time. Sorry if this sounds aggressive, but what you say here is offensive and misguided. I don’t understand where you’re coming from Afew! I submitted that diary as a report — while I did cite exhaustion, it had nothing to do with the initial diary/report but if you remember, I mentioned that I didn’t feel like reporting on what transpired during the question and answer session — the CER pamphlet was not written by me and if you are not satisfied with what they have submitted, you should go tell them — I can’t help you there simply because I too have a lot of questions to ask and I thought writing a “report” about the CER report launch would be a good way to start a debate but heck, you attacked my post as if I had been guilty of something or for authoring the CER pamphlet. You apologised and said you’re sorry for sounding over critical or aggressive or whatever but why am I feeling that your being sorry is a teeny weeny bit just on the sly? If your role in ET is that of an ombudsman, I will accept the criticisms if they are warranted (and I humbly submit that I may have been clumsy in my reports) but I have gotten to a stage that I have lost the appetite to engage in debates because rightly or wrongly I don’t think it’s worth my time to post any more diaries — put it to that feeling of being “not with it”, i.e., whatever diary I may post will not meet the ET “agenda” (whatever it is) since I am not left-wing or ultra-liberal enough to go with the ET flow which I believe to be greatly dominated by “leftish” sentiments. While I greatly enjoyed reading some of the diaries, particularly those of Frank Schnittger’s (whom I appreciated from way back when he was posting in Charles Bremner’s blog), and Migeru’s, Jerome’s, Drew’s, Helen’s, Jake’s, In Wales, and a few others, there are diaries that I don’t particularly relish reading because of I felt they were thoroughly biased against anything right wing (could be wrong but heck, that’s my opinion.) But to reformulate what Giscard d’Estaing said to Mitterand in a televised presidential election debate: “Vous n’avez pas le monopole de coeur!” (“You don’t have the monopoly of heart”) This will be my last diary in the European Tribune. If it suits you or ET, you can delete my diaries. I believe you have the power to do it — as someone in an Open Thread (I think by In Wales) a few weeks back said — or along the same line, “We have the power to delete…” (Who is “We”, that I really don’t know.) by The3rdColumn on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 10:12:39 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This ] * [new] Re: This will be my last diary in ET (4.00 / 2) I think voices even the majority of ET readers disagree with should nevertheless be welcome here.  And while some people have the ability to delete diaries and comments, it should only be done in exceptional circumstances. I don’t think anyone has the right to delete a diary solely because they are in disagreement with it.It is very important that ET remains a place where dialogue and debate can flourish and remain within the bounds of common courtesy.  I happen to agree with Afew’s position, but do not understnd the purpose of personal attacks.I can’t blame you for wanting to leave.Hopefully there will remain a place here for you if you decide to return.   Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. by poemless (poemless at gmail dot com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 11:10:56 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] * [new] Re: This will be my last diary in ET (none / 0) We never delete diaries because we disagree with it, only in circumstances of gross offensiveness or gross copyright infringement or something like that. by Colman (colmanetg at gmail.com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 11:29:58 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] * [new] Re: This will be my last diary in ET (none / 0) Right.  Which is what I said.Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possesses over the other organisms. by poemless (poemless at gmail dot com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 11:45:13 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] * [new] Please don’t go (4.00 / 2) One of the reasons for afew’s impatience is that we have spent a lot of effort on ET to gather the facts that do prove that your assertions about “assistés”, or about the “brain drain”, or about France’s supposed lack of dynamism, etc… are lies and/or myths endlessly promoted by the rightwing and repeated ad nauseam by the “serious” media.We’ve spent a lot of effort proving them wrong, and  it is wearying for us to see them presented as facts on ET, when they are nothing but. Now the fair reaction to you, a relative newcomer, would be to point you to the relevant diaries which collate these facts, but do bear in mind that we spend a lot of time fighting that accepted common wisdom, and that it grinds us down.So please don’t take us on faith when we make these assertions, they are fully backed by hard numbers from unimpeachable sources. A good start, if you have not read this, is this summary post, which made it into Le Monde (without all the sources): France is not in decline and the last thing it needs is ‘reform’. another, earlier effort would be this: Actual facts about the French labor marketOn the brain drain, may I point you to this: On “assistés”, to these: Our agenda is not to be leftist, it is to change perceptions that are shaped on incorrect facts. I hope you can still participate to this forum; for one I have much appreciated your input and insights. Do trust us a little bit when we make assertions here – they are usually backed by hard facts, and, if you have read some of our deconstructions in recent weeks, you should by now be aware that a number of things in the mainstream press are based on repeating the dominant narrative with little respect for the underlying reality – and constesting this does not make us “lefties” (note how this is intended as an insult in the media), or a cult, or something similarly easy to dismiss. In the long run, we’re all dead. John Maynard Keynes by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 11:32:53 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] * [new] Re: This will be my last diary in ET (none / 1) <sigh> Where to begin?If “ICU case yourself!” offended you I apologise. It was not meant as an outright insult, but as a flippant way of reminding you that casually speaking of France as an “ICU case” was in itself offensive.You twice speak of “sleight of hand” and “slyness” on my part. Nothing of the sort. For instance, when I say “The famous mentalité d’assistés that anyone on the right trundles out without a second’s further thought”, I’m simply speaking from experience, since this is a French expression greatly used by French people on the right of the political spectrum. It was not a dig at you in person. When (in the CER thread) I said I was sorry if I sounded aggressive, and said “do get some rest” when you said you were exhausted, I was simply showing you some respect.I’m not an ombudsman and I was not writing my comments in any official capacity. I’m a front-pager here, meaning I can post directly to the front page and have some editorial powers ordinary users don’t have. If I write in that official capacity, I preface my comment with [ET Moderation Technology™] . (Front-pager duties are explained here). My comment above and my comments on your CER thread were written as from one user to another. Nothing in what I said implied I possessed any authority or rank over you. You say you have “openly admitted to being right-wing”. Fine. But you seem to be complaining that the general ethos of ET is left-leaning. There’s nothing sneaky about that, it’s clear and above-board. Please see this from the site FAQ: European Tribune – Frequently Asked Questions What’s a progressive? What if I am not one? “Progressive” is an political term used loosely to identify activists of the left, favorable to sound and fair economic and social policies, equality of chances, and the defense of personal rights. The European Tribune is broadly progressive, but welcomes all contributors regardless of political self-identification, provided that they be respectful of the mission of this site, provide principled disagreement and don’t engage in trollish behavior. (Please note that I am not accusing you of trollish behaviour.. ) So you are a conservative posting on a left-of-centre blog. What surprises me is that you don’t seem to expect other members here to argue with you, to call on you to substantiate what you say. Yet what you say (or what you draw attention to, in the case of the CER report) is likely to attract criticism here. You say  you hope to “start a debate” but, when the debate starts, it’s not the kind you want. For example, you seem to think it beneath you to discuss facts (re the CER report), to present some facts to back up what you say: you reply that you don’t do “data-mining”, and you send me off to find stuff on the net. But I’m not the only one to ask you for some substance to support your allegations (and, in this diary, there are allegations aplenty). If you say something, then you back it up, you don’t tell others to go looking in your place. As for your diary above, it’s framed in a way that suggests it’s a comment on Charles Bremner and his view of Sarkozy. I think I’m quite within my rights in saying I’m not interested in that. My point is the casual assumptions, and the more than loaded language, that you include about France, and that, for me, make up the main thrust of your text. You seem absolutely certain of them: our dear friends who are not French should know that part of the problem is caused by the French themselves who cannot go beyond the permanent ‘assisté’ mentality. the sick man/ICU case of Europe This is not Bremner, or Sarkozy, or CER, or your memory of what you think Barroso said, this is you speaking. What’s so extraordinary about being asked to explain and provide substance? So you say you will stop posting, well, that’s up to you. There is no reason to delete anything, on the contrary, that would be unfair to what you have written and to the contributions of other members in the discussion threads. As for “we can delete”, I think it was part of an explanation about what front-pagers can do. But the only stuff we delete, as part of maintenance tasks, is spam, or comments that get posted twice. Not your comments and diaries, T3C When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind by afew (afew_at_europe_dot_com) on Fri Mar 21st, 2008 at 11:44:31 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] ‘the sick man of Europe’? (none / 1) I know you wrote ‘is considered to be’, but you might want to actually substantiate that bit, which is the ONE BIG lie you get in every single article on France.In the long run, we’re all dead. John Maynard Keynes by Jerome a Paris (jeromeguillet@yahoo.fr) on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 03:24:24 AM EDT [ Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] Re: ‘the sick man of Europe’? (none / 0) Or what about substantiating this:    2) Les caisses sont vides (The treasury is empty)ABSOLUTELY TRUE *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it. by DoDo on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 04:49:00 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] Re: ‘the sick man of Europe’? (4.00 / 2) Well, they are. full stop. The budgets of the state and social security are only balanced by the goodwill of lenders, half of which are foreign. But France is in no way different from US, Japan, and many other OECD nations, in that respect. Except may be in that the global tax/contribution burden is one of the highest, around 45% of GDP.I’m not arguing here on the issue that the tax is fair or not (it is not, the burden is skewed even more heavily towards taxing individual wage labor and not capital/corporate profits/self employed labor). Simply the agregate burden is one of the highest, and still the budget isn’t balanced without floating more debt every year.Of course, Sarko is a dickhead to complain about this now, just after he cut taxes on the richest himself. But he read george w bush’s “neolib political economics for dummies”.Still, raising and rebalancing taxes will not be enough: France will need to make honest assessments and cut some benefits and public labor. This will happen in the nearer future than most people think. A credit crunch has far reaching consequences. Lenders will not get fooled another time after the “Great Dollar Devaluation Heist”, which is coming right now. Pierre by Pierre on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 10:19:07 AM EDT [ Parent | Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] Re: Charles Bremner defines, encapsulates Sarkoz (none / 0) is only able to pick out only 3 sentences to define, i.e., encapsulate everything he (Sarkozy) has done…Oh yeah, what else has he done? Proposed Bliar for President, miffed the German Goverment and the EU Commission by stealing their limelight for initiatives they have begun, proposed tax cuts for the rich, created a quasi-far-right ministry (ministry of immigration, integration and national identity???).*Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it. by DoDo on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 05:00:53 AM EDT [ Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] Sarkomanie! (none / 1) I spent the better part of the past decade giving many in my family, starting with my father in law who for some reason idolizes the man, shit for Berlusconi.Now we have one.It is quite unfortunate.This is what Generation Johnny came up with. Not edifying. They’ll be gone sooner than we know it, though. It’s even sad, in many ways. Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden by redstar on Wed Mar 19th, 2008 at 05:36:18 AM EDT [ Reply to This | none0-Mega Troll1-Troll2-Warning!3-Good4-Excellent ] Charles Bremner defines, “encapsulates” Sarkozy’s 10-month old presidency | 12 comments (12 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden) | Post A Comment   Display: ThreadedMinimalNestedFlatFlat UnthreadedDynamic ThreadedDynamic Minimal Rate? YesNoHide Go to: [ European Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]