Which is bad and worse unfortunately. The "right" is further to the right in just about every other European country. Not to mention complete embrace of the EU by these "Gaulists".
He has taken a moribund political party, RPR (Rallye for the Republic) and transformed it into a modern, pro-business, pro-western cultural values, and pro-individual rights and responsibilitiesd anationalist, Gaullist Party. This new party, UMP, has been the vehicle that Sarko has used to drag a top heavy, bloated 19th century bureaucratic France, kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
The UMP was formed by Chirac and it originally stood for "Union for a Presidential Majority". He and his PMs unpopularity lead to Sark's rise in the party. He had been leader of Rally for the Republic briefly in 1999, until a horrible result in the 1999 elections sent him packing.
The reason Chirac supported Sarko in the end, is he is, at heart, a Gaullist, who detests the Left. If you know anything about Chirac, or the political class of his generation, they would never, ever, support a Socialist.
Hehe. Well Chirac may have passed for the "right" in France but as far as I'm concerned he's the left and PS is the far-left. Chirac backed the man from his own party who isn't as dissimilar to him as we believed.
Back to Sark, how can you explain his ridiculous remarks on Islam? Mistranslation?
I'm sorry but I fail to see how he's turned out anything but marginally better than Chirac (not hard to accomplish that). Maybe you can cite some examples.
He's been a big letdown after all the hype from conservative publications. I almost see a parallel with GWB who was touted as a conservative unlike his daddy, which turned out to be false. And if both cases many conservatives can't admit they were fooled.
Your lack of knowledge about French Political History and the French political system, is astounding.
Can’t you think outside of the box of US politics for a moment to understand what happens in other parts of the world? Do you even read or speak French? Read French newspapers or political journals on the Right? Or just dit n’importe quoi when it pleases you?
Perhaps some of our French and European FReepers can help us out here, and contribute to the discussion.