…Both Blair and Sarkozy are lawyers. Both are precocious and imbued with an unwavering self-belief. Sarkozy, however, is French, which means that he is burdened with a sense of history that would be unimaginable to Blair. Despite the voluntarism of his campaign, Sarkozy has learned, through a painful confrontation with reality, that both he and his politics are circumscribed by the landmark moments in his nation’s past (the Revolution, The Occupation, May ‘68). As any right wing politician would have told him, it was vain of him to hope that by the sheer force of his will and his rhetoric, he could drag France away from the founding myths that still define her and make her (emotionally at least) left-wing.
Lucy Wadham
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Fascinating review Lucy – a good taster for your book I hope. Have you read Robert Harris’ rather wicked satire of Blair, ‘The Ghost’? Sounds like Sarko could well provide adequate material for a French equivalent.
“Only in this way, he implies, will France remain true to herself”… In “The Meaning of Sarkozy” Badiou asks: who is France?” Answer: the small portion of the population that chooses a point that ruptures *reality*, that resisted… Question: Who is she today, if anyone?