Two weeks for Sarkozy

Having returned from Russia, from where I was “asked” within a three-day period - for meetings with opposition representatives on the eve of the elections that were not sanctioned by migration officials (or someone else?), I again plunged into the presidential campaign - already in my homeland. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that he is running for a second term. His intention to fight for the presidency again was announced after too long silence: after all, there are only two months left before the elections (April 22). No other than the president-candidate for a long time pondering his election program ...

In France, the presidential race is usually held without excessive vehemence, according to long-standing rules. The French are dissatisfied with many things, but they will never take to the streets for the reasons that prompted tens of thousands of Muscovites to go to Bolotnaya Square: the votes of "angry Parisians" cast against the social policy of the current government will not be stolen. And now the emotions of fellow citizens, or rather, irritation, up to the gnashing of teeth, caused not fears of fraud, but the election program of the candidate from the French "party of power" who had been silent for so long.

„

Nicolas Sarkozy noticeably lags behind his main competitor - the candidate of the Socialist Party Francois Hollande: 25% of the rating against 35%

”

So, Sarkozy, judging by his interview to the TF1 TV channel on February 15, is going to build a campaign on the concept of “closeness to the people” and will create an image of an “anti-systemic”, “anti-elitist” candidate for himself. And so that his new image immediately becomes clear to voters, Monsieur Sarkozy, if elected for a second term, promises to regularly hold referendums in the country on the most pressing issues. It would be nice, the candidate immediately specified, to hold the first such referendum on topics related to the life of the unemployed: how to compensate them for the loss of employment, how to return them to the labor market, etc.

Well, the situation in which the country finds itself after the five-year rule of Sarkozy is far from ideal: the unemployment rate rose to 9.5% by the end of 2011, the purchasing power of the population fell. Like, what else to talk about. However, the electorate began to ask questions. Why is it now that the president-candidate has revived the idea of ​​referendums, which he has never mentioned in the past five years? The results of referendums are not always pleasant and expected for the authorities: memories of the 2005 referendum on the EU constitution, when the majority of the French said “no” to this project, are still fresh in memory. Does Nicolas Sarkozy remember this? Does he remember that the bet on a plebiscite in 1969 brought the great Charles de Gaulle, whom the current head of state loves to refer to, from the political arena * * Charles de Gaulle resigned on April 28, 1969, losing the referendum initiated by him on two bills - on the reform of local government and the Senate.?

He remembers, he remembers. That is why I decided to play on the national pride of fellow citizens, to please their right to say “no”. But he probably forgot something else: in 2005, the right-wing government ignored the “unpleasant” result of the referendum on the pan-European Constitution and, unlike de Gaulle, “forgot” to resign. But the other side, the voters, certainly remembers this very well.

According to the latest sociological polls, Sarkozy is noticeably behind his main competitor, Francois Hollande, a candidate from the Socialist Party: 25% of the rating against 35%. The incumbent president has very little time left. If in the next two weeks he does not regain his superiority over Hollande, he will surely lose. He does not have at hand either controlled media or obedient election commissions - only ideas. But the most depressing thing: it seems that there are no ideas either ...