Sarkozy shakes up French holiday

rance is celebrating its national day under new President Nicolas Sarkozy with a shake-up of tradition. For the first time, soldiers from France's 26 EU partners have taken part in the Bastille Day military parade.

The move, meant to underline France's commitment to Europe, was announced shortly after Mr Sarkozy took office.

Mr Sarkozy, who took over from Jacques Chirac in May, has also broken with the customary television address and amnesty of minor offenders.

Flag-bearers from all the European Union's member states marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris, with the EU and French flags at the front.

Mr Sarkozy told official guests the intention was "to say that France was back in Europe and that Europe had to look at France through different eyes".

Mr Sarkozy led the parade, standing in the back of a slow-moving military vehicle.

In another break with protocol, he brought the horse guards behind him to an abrupt halt by stopping to shake hands with the crowd.

Bastille Day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789, which launched the French Revolution.

Yes, you are correct it was a bloody mess, that is unless one does not mind chopping the heads off of babies whose only crime was that their parents said something to disparage the revoltion.

The French Revolution was a murdering rampage. Remember they are on their 5th Republic- we are still on our first.

Most of us have high hopes for Sarkozy and wish him well. It appears he is very busy trying to rebuild his image into a nice guy.

French friends who live here in Los Angeles express their concerns that this maybe France’s last chance to be a great nation otherwise the EU and the Muslims will swallow them up.

The term Leftist comes from the French Revolution. Seems nothing has changed with the Left ( we will make your life better if we have to kill you doing it)

“The move, meant to underline France’s commitment to Europe”

- Way to go!

Sarkozy is doing the right thing.

I feel proud of being European.

Europe and The US are facing great times.

We are powerful beyond belief.

Our enemies are weak.

The Fall of the Bastille
July 14, 1789
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/WestEurope/Bastille.html

The garrison consisted of 82 Invalids, 2 cannoneers and 32 Swiss soldiers. In the Bastille were fifteen cannons, loads of case shot pointed directly at the drawbridge, six hundred musketoons, twelve rampart muskets with over fifteen thousand cartridges and twenty thousand pounds of powder. While the fortress had the reputation of being a very harsh prison, there were only 7 prisoners in the building and 4 of these were being held for forgery.

Thanks for the post. Sounds like an exciting event. The last time I was at a Bastille Day parade was in 2005. It was raining and the only people lining the streets were tourists and young French men and women harassing the police, fire fighters and military. I don’t think Chirac was even in the parade but rather in the VIP viewing stand.

Looks like things have definitely changed in France.

CONGRATS TO SARKO. Does he have an American brother than could run in ‘08 here in the USA?

This year’s Parade was really different. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the Parade route, cheering and waving French flags.

Actually Sarko does have an American brother, but I think he was born in France :

The Other Sarkozy: Big Apple Dealmaker

When France decided to make Nicolas Sarkozy its new president, many took into account the fact that he was the most business friendly of all candidates, with known connections to chief executives of some of the country’s biggest companies, including Francois Pinault and Arnaud Lagardere. One connection which many voters may not have known of is his half-brother, Oliver Sarkozy, who in recent years has had a hand in some of the world’s biggest bank takeovers.

Oliver, who was in Paris on Monday after spending much of the previous night celebrating with Nicolas, shares a father with the new president. Hungarian immigrant Pal Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa left his family when Nicolas was five and went on to marry Christine de Ganay, the mother of Oliver.

Now 37, Oliver drops in on his half-brother a few times a year while scouring the globe for mega finance deals on which he can give advice as joint global head of UBS (nyse: UBS - news - people ) Investment Bank’s Financial Institutions Group. Sporting a thick American accent he also chooses not to go by the legal French spelling of his name, Olivier.

His latest gig has been as adviser to ABN Amro (nyse: ABN - news - people ) on its increasingly tricky merger with Barclays (nyse: BCS - news - people ), though in the last few months he’s become less involved in the deal. In April he also led the team that advised student loan company Sallie Mae (nyse: SLM - news - people ), when it agreed to be bought for $25 billion by a consortium of banks and private equity firms.

Aside from that, Oliver has a raft of mega deals under his belt, including MBNA’s sale to Bank of America for $35 billion, Wachovia’s (nyse: WB - news - people ) $14 billion acquisition of Southtrust, and National Commerce’s $7 billion sale to Suntrust Banks (nyse: STI - news - people ).

http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2007/05/09/oliver-sarkozy-ubs-face-markets-cx_po_0507autofacescan03.html

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