Sarkozy, the former interior minister whose tough stances on law and order and immigration have brought him enemies in immigrant suburbs and beyond, is facing an “Anything but Sarkozy” movement that Royal and her allies are using to fan fears that he would “brutalize” and “divide” France.
“Why so much hatred?” he asked over and over in a campaign speech Monday, repeating the question 46 times.
With the left promoting an image of Sarkozy as a power-hungry, 21st-century Napoleon...
Heightening the drama, there have been calls on the French left for the Socialists to cast aside their historic ties to the Communists...
Asked on RTL radio if he was accusing Sarkozy of asking Canal+ television to cancel the debate, Bayrou said: “I don’t have the proof but I am certain of it.”
Bayrou said he based his accusations on testimony from people inside Canal+ and “all those who were interested in the debate and intended to broadcast it.”
“I say with certainty that we have before our eyes today the proof of this propensity or choice of Nicolas Sarkozy to control the news and debate, and this is harmful for France,” he said.
“It’s slander, a slanderous insinuation,” said Sarkozy’s normally restrained campaign director Gueant.
“It is extremely serious to make such remarks. These are Stalinist tactics. To assert things without proof is extremely serious,” he told Reuters.
The CSA broadcasting watchdog issued a statement denying it had ordered Canal+ and two other broadcasters to drop the debate, sparking cries of foul play from the Socialist camp.
“There is Sarkozy censorship in this affair, I’m deeply convinced of it. We know that Sarkozy always operates like that, through intimidation,” senior Socialist Jean-Marc Ayrault said on LCI television.
Bush to Sarkozy, “Welcome to my world.”