A candidate’s screams and fury

Let us put the record straight. Nicolas Sarkozy has a very troubled relationship with the truth: we did not talk about fascism but about "the stench of Pétainism". The smell is so strong that it is overpowering within the ranks of the UMP, as evidenced by recent remarks by Jean-Pierre Raffarin [1], and in particular that Sarkozy had to pull back from his use of the term "real work", falsely claiming before millions of viewers on Wednesday night on TF1 that he had not uttered these words.

Nevertheless, for the first time since the Liberation, a right wing leader will be organizing an anti-trade union demonstration on the first of May This sort of thing used to be the exclusive preserve of Le Pen, father and daughter. Our newspaper has not used vague descriptions but solid facts. Some of our colleagues in the press, who accompanied Sarkozy in his fury, should also take a look at those facts.

Has Sarkozy not already evoked, in accents of a the sombre past: “la terre, qui ne ment pas” (“ the earth, it does not lie”)? The scarecrow agitated by Nicolas Sarkozy concerning the call, launched in 700 mosques, to vote for Hollande, has also proved to be a big lie, along with a supposed call of Islamist preacher, 
 Tariq Ramadan. To use this type of stigmatization against sections of society, based on their religious belief or ethnic origin, to create a campaign based on lies ... does this remind you of anything?

The president yesterday satisfied a demand made by the most extremist police officers after a demonstration against the prosecution of one of them who is accused to have shot a fleeing offender in the back. This is a new episode in his encampment on Front National territory. The case is so worrying that the Public Prosecution, representing the Minister of Justice, has not appealed the decision. This decision to trample all over the criminal justice system, substituting law and order for justice, is a worrying trend. When the right flirts with the far right, it always marks a return to the ideas and words of Maurrassisme or to the dissident formations and factions of the post-war days.

These recent tirades against unions or against minimum wage earners add a string of antisocial policies, to the authoritarianism of the European austerity plan... To hear the president’s candidacy, it becomes clear to us that his proposals are even worse than his current policy; L’Humanité will keep stating this, without fear, despite being targeted by the anger of the president. Let us quote Zola: 
 "A society is only strong when it opens the truth up to the bright light of the sun. "