2012 election: Sarkozy bets on "credibility" in times of crisis

Sélectionné par la rédaction

Par Le Figaro pour le cercle :

As crisis hits France less than a year before the presidential election, the president emphasizes his experience and credibility.

Nine months before the French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy’s crucial goal becomes to make the French understand that, thanks to policies implemented since his election, he has set France apart from the rest economically. The Standard & Poor’s rating agency, which downgraded the United States on Monday, said that Paris had a “well conceived budgetary policy.”

“In the eyes of the whole world, France is considered credible,” a counselor to the president said. “We took the right direction, but we don’t want others to drag us down. That can’t be predicted.”

“Who’s most credible in this time of crisis?”

While the president remains in the background, Economy Minister François Baroin and Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse relay this encouraging message to the media, even insisting that France is ready “to go even further” to reduce its deficit. “The president want to use the contrast between France and countries like the United States where Obama waited too long to straighten out the situation,” a minister said.

Sarkozy plans to emphasize experience and credibility during the campaign. “The question is: who’s most credible in this time of crisis?” asks a close relation to the Elysée. “Does the country need the responsible right or the lavish left?”

For presidential strategists, the “wind of crisis” has the positive political impact of sweeping away what they call “TSS”, or the “Tout sauf Sarkozy” syndrome (“anyone but Sarkozy”) and criticism of the president’s style of leadership.

“The French can’t stand to feel powerless”

“We were warned that the election would be a referendum for or against Sarkozy,” said pollster Guillaume Peltier, who now counsels Sarkozy’s majority party, the UMP. “Today, studies bring up this sentence, which people being polled say spontaneously: “You don’t change pilots when the ride gets bumpy.”

The worsening economic crisis – low growth, possible increase of unemployment – will make the election more difficult. “What does it mean to repeat that Sarkozy has dealt well with the crisis even as the crisis keeps coming back?” asked a UMP deputy. “We’re not euphoric,” a counselor to the president said. “It’s already complicated to be the incumbent president, and it only gets worse in times of crisis. The French can’t stand to feel powerless.”

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