Sarkozy’s big speech gets no love from French press

On Sunday, April 16, the two leading French presidential candidates, centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist challenger François Hollande, held dueling campaign rallies in Paris.

But on Monday morning, France’s reporters and editorialists mostly seemed to have one man on their radar: Sarkozy, the politician once frequently praised as dynamic and even transformative, now fighting an uphill battle to stay in office.

The Concorde rally in pictures

Indeed, the French press featured mostly sceptical reviews of Sarkozy’s speech, which he delivered at Paris’s iconic Place de la Concorde.

‘Lyrical and forward-looking’ or ‘nonsensical and inert’?

France’s main left-leaning newspaper, Libération, did not mince its words. “Sarkozy displayed a childishness that suggested his current vulnerability,” the publication known as “Libé” said. “He presented himself as the heir to both Napoleon and De Gaulle, a double posture that captured the essence of his campaign: nonsensical and inert.”

Far-left daily L’Humanité was even more scathing, referring to Sarkozy’s first terms as a period of “destruction” and describing his speech as an instance of “Dr. Jekyll forgetting his Mr. Hyde, a candidate’s words indicating amnesia about a president’s acts”.

Right-leaning daily newspaper Le Figaro was a notable exception to the anti-Sarkozy voices, publishing an editorial that characterised the president’s address as “rich, lyrical, and forward-looking”. In a thinly veiled swipe at Hollande, Le Figaro noted that “Unlike his rival, who indulged in anti-Sarkozy rhetoric, [the president] did not once mention the Socialist candidate’s name or mock his policy proposals.”

Losing the ‘image war’

Some of France’s regional press was comparatively measured in their assessment of the president’s performance. Le Telegramme, a daily from the northwestern region of Brittany, deemed Sarkozy’s “objective achieved”.

“In an election that has seen him weakened by the economic crisis and certain behavioural missteps that his opponents have not hesitated to seize upon,” the newspaper read, “the president looked like a survivor, constantly obligated to fight his way back to the surface and avoid being drowned.” As for Hollande, the candidate was better, according to The Telegramme, than Sarkozy at communicating compassion, thanks in part to “his friendly face and hoarse voice”.

Southern newspaper Le Sud-Ouest agreed that Sarkozy “has lost the image war”, noting that after his speech, Sarkozy could be spotted “hastily shaking hands, as if he were in a rush to get out of there”.

Western French daily, Ouest-France, was more severe with the contents of the sitting president’s speech. The publication’s editorial concluded that “instead of daring to tell the truth, all [Sarkozy] gave us was symbolism, carefully selected bits of information, and caricature….as if our future did not depend on this election”.

Northern newspaper Paris-Normandie criticised both of the leading presidential candidates for what the publication described as a day of political grandstanding: “It’s beginning to look like a school yard during recess”, with “two blowhards…going a bit overboard”, an editorial read.

Supporters of socialist challenger Francois Hollande rally in eastern Paris With just one week to go before polls open in France's presidential election, the two leading contenders staged their biggest shows yet in the French capital. Supporters of Socialist candidate François Hollande rallied outside the Chateau de Vincennes. Photo: M.Chebil Tens of thousands of people filled the esplanade facing the Chateau de Vincennes in eastern Paris. Hollande's campaign staff claimed that some 100,000 people attended the rally, but no official figures have been released. Photo: Mehdi Chebil Kané (left), a 32-year-old French worker of Mauritanian descent, said he was concerned about Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party drifting further to the right with its growing anti-immigration stance. Photo: Mehdi Chebil François Hollande called for a "festive" gathering and dozens of militants heeded his call, starting the rally with a picnic outside the castle in Vincennes. Photo: Mehdi Chebil Cecile came from the town of Cognac in western France to back François Hollande: "I want to relive 1981," said the 60-year-old pensioner, recalling the first time a Socialist candidate, François Mitterand, was elected as France's president. Photo: Mehdi Chebil "I'm not a member of the Socialist party but I back Hollande and I came to see a show of strength and solidarity," said Evelyne, a teacher from the southern city of Toulon. Photo: Mehdi Chebil The rally's festive atmosphere was reflected in the French Caribbean tunes of zouk singer Jacob Desvarieux. Socialist supporters were treated to an hour-long concert before François Hollande addressed the crowd. Photo: Mehdi Chebil Supporters of Hollande feel emboldened by the Socialist candidate's commanding lead in all recent opinion surveys. © Mehdi Chebil Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist, was the first senior politician to address the crowd. In his speech, he recalled how he wrestled control of the French capital from the conservatives in 2001. Photo: Mehdi Chebil The crowd erupted into cheering when Hollande eventually appeared on stage. A key objective of the Socialist rally was to create a sense of enthusiasm around his candidacy in a bid to dismiss claims that people support him only to oust Sarkozy. Photo: Mehdi Chebil François Hollande insisted that he was the only candidate from the left who could win the presidential election, a barely disguised call to supporters of left-wing rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon to back the Socialists in the vote's first round. Photo: Mehdi Chebil Pierre (centre) came from a northern suburb of Paris to get a glimpse of the man he believes will become France's next president. Photo: Mehdi Chebil “Victory will be ours next Sunday (…) Nothing will prevent us from winning”, concluded François Hollande in front of an ecstatic crowd of supporters. Photo: Mehdi Chebil