THE AUSTRALIAN: The President's divisive policies on immigration and race could derail the next election.
IF Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency is consumed by the hydra-headed monster that is France's National Front, reinvigorated under Marine Le Pen, he has only himself to blame.
When Sarkozy was elected president in 2007, there was rejoicing that despite his dangerous campaign embrace of far Right rhetoric and policies, Sarkozy had at least vanquished veteran culture warrior Jean-Marie Le Pen's extremist political movement as an electoral force.
But Sarkozy's long-term strategy of battling the racist Right on its own territory, with strident anti-immigrant and law and order policies and polemics, has manifestly failed. As the political establishment gears up for an early start to the 2012 presidential poll, Le Pen's daughter and heir apparent is now attracting 27 per cent of the vote in some popularity surveys and she hasn't even been officially crowned successor to her father.
Throughout his career Sarkozy has made it his practice to "steal" the policies of the extreme Right, and slightly repackage them for majority consumption. >>> Emma-Kate Symons | The Australian | December 18, 2010
