It Takes More Than a Bitch to Make a President ...

I have a vivid memory of Sunday January 14, 2007. On that day I watched Nicolas Sarkozy do his speech as the new UMP nominated candidate for the Presidential Election. This speech was outstanding. I had it printed afterwards and read it again and again, always with emotion, with tears in my eyes.

He was saying how "Gaullism was not a doctrine because general De Gaulle never wanted that, but was a moral commitment, exercising power as a mission devoting oneself one hundred percent, the conviction that France is strong only when united, the certitude that nothing is lost till the Resistance spark is alive in the heart of only one man, the refusal to quit, rupture with set ideas and established "order" when those lead France towards decline"

Nicolas Sarkozy was a fantastic hope that day for European society. A leader was born! But today my disillusion measures up to this incredible hope: I'm p#sd off, I feel cheated, outraged. His words were just words, this guy is just a liar. He pretended to be the champion of work, ethics, morale, dedication, a family defender, the man who would bring back confidence for the honest citizen.

Now, look at him: he's the exact opposite. The only side of him we have seen since September is his very much restless private life. If people can stand a divorce, his love affair with sex-symbol Carla Bruni-Tedeschi is frightening.

Nicolas Sarkozy is President no more, he is just a pitiful quinquagenarian unable to put his demons at rest, marrying a woman he has been dating for two months. Showing through his choice that his speech about traditional values is just bs: Carla Bruni-Tedeschi is very well known to be a Leftist with very large ideas about behaviour and living standards, I mean she's sub-zero as far as moral values are concerned.

All her life she's been a real highway for male-riders, defining herself much more polygamous than monogamous. She had love affairs with half the show-business, for instance Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Vincent Perez, but also with Donald Trump and even... former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, a socialist rival of her now husband Nicolas Sarkozy.

She's a woman able to leave a man for his son (philosopher - oh my Gooood- Raphaêl Enthoven) and to have a child with him. Lately, she posed in the nude for a Spanish paper, wearing the ring she received as a present from Sarkozy.

As stated by the International Herald Tribune, Sarkozy's witness at the wedding was Nicolas Bazire, a senior figure in the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury goods group, while Bruni's witness was Mathilde Agostinelli, head of communications at Prada France.

And that shows another side of Sarkozy, his vulgar and ostentatious manners. Is it appropriate to have superficial companies like Prada and Louis Vuitton represent the symbol of his wedding. What about the people he represents?

Let's face it: from the moment he went into Office, Sarkozy, rather than being noticed for his work and his reforms, has shown his interest for rich and powerful friends who are willing to place their yachts, aircrafts, houses at his disposal (with privileges in return?), for expensive and superficial clothes or accessories like watches (how stupid can an expensive watch collecting man be?) and for easy women.

We know everything about the woman he dates/marries, everything about the clothes he buys, everything about his frequent holidays, yet very little about the measures he takes to bring France back on the rails.

We can see him wandering with Bruni in the streets of Paris, in Egypt, in Disneyland, everywhere. Does the guy work? The media frenzy has dealt a blow to Sarkozy's popularity ratings, with French voters complaining that he was concentrating too much on his personal life and not enough on the affairs of the country...

Trouble has surfaced over this side of the "President bling-bling", as they call him, a "leader" fixated as much on foreign holidays and pretty women as on the need for boosting French GDP.

Can a lovestruck President enact the reforms his country desperately needs? It also did not help that these holidays came at a time when ordinary people were grumbling about rising heating costs and a dramatic decline in the purchasing power of their euros. President Sarkozy is now busy with his love affair with a dubious woman, not with his work: he should resign.

This somehow remembers me the story of Urbino, a beloved city for me: in 1444, Oddantonio da Montefeltro, recently named Duke of Urbino, spoiled the cashes of the small state with his excessive life-style (he is reported to have held parties during more than 15 days), and had to exert heavy taxes over the duchy. He also sought support with their arch-enemies, the Malatesta, seemingly reaching a complete dependence from them.

As a result, in the night between 21 and 22 July of 1444 he was killed by conjurers in the Ducal Palace and thrown through the window crashing at the feet of his angry citizens. Okay, we are civilized now: come on French people, let's force Sarkozy into resignation and let's let him walk away alive through the door of the Elysée.