On 12 juil. 10, at 01:55, SA wrote:
> One of the interesting things about the Sarkozy phenomenon - maybe JC Helary can say more - is that apparently part of his whole politics of "rupture" was using a kind of demotic and inelegant everyday type of speech that the French (but not Americans) are unaccustomed to hearing from politicians, especially presidents.
That's correct, partly, since the "rupture" was _also_ supposed to be political ("Une république irréprochable").
The first shock came when when he insulted people at a trade fair 2 years ago.
> My understanding is that there was something of a backlash and he's now toned this down.
Indeed. The backlash did not come from his language though, but rather from the realization that whatever he said was empty promises (except for the very rich people). That mixed with his faux-popular speech and he was done.
The current Bettencourt/Woerth scandal is sure going to affect his credibility and since the scandal is not going to stop any time soon, I'd bet a few sushis that he's going to be having a few problems being reelected in 2012.
Jean-Christophe