Secular Café: Comeback for Sarkozy?

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Comeback for Sarkozy? Apr 13th 2013, 08:33 I'd have thought it was too early to speculate. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22126213 Quote: Of course the French have long indulged in nostalgia for their former presidents. The question is do they yearn for Mr Sarkozy - or his energy? In 11 months in office, President Hollande has fallen further and faster than any other president of the modern day Fifth Republic. A recent poll showed only 27% of the French have any confidence in him President Hollande. "Don't forget Mr Sarkozy won almost half the popular vote when he lost the election," said Edouard Lecerf, of TNS Sofres. "And suddenly - because Mr Hollande and his Prime Minister are so unpopular - people are looking back to a different period. More and more are wondering whether they made the right choice after all." Mr Sarkozy's chances of stealing back the Elysee, albeit four years from now, will rest on the former president positioning himself as everything his successor Mr Hollande is not; in other words, a complete reversal of the last presidential campaign. Mr Hollande who cast himself as 'Mr Normal' is now perceived as 'too normal', struggling to get a grip an unprecedented economic crisis. Suddenly Mr Sarkozy's irrepressible, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude, has taken on new allure... ...BUT there is something more explosive than Mon Raymond! Namely the case in Bordeaux which could yet derail Mr Sarkozy's hopes of a comeback. Investigating magistrates have been doggedly pursuing allegations he took illegal party donations for his 2007 presidential campaign, from the 90-year-old L'Oreal Heiress Liliane Bettencourt. This month he was placed under formal investigation, specifically for "taking financial advantage of a vulnerable woman". It was news that brought Carla to tears. "It's simply unimaginable," she sobbed. "Simply unimaginable he could take advantage of a woman old enough to be his mother. I can't talk about it any more!" Indeed so high are the stakes - a court case would put paid to any chance of a return - it has caused a furious slanging match between left and right. The independence of investigating magistrate Jean Michel Gentil has been questioned - he even received a death threat; a bullet in the post.

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