Nicolas Sarkozy, champion of the working class or master bullsh*t artist?

[marmar]

Sarkozy Morphs From ‘President Bling-Bling’ to Worker Champion
By Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Francois de Beaupuy


Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- At 4 a.m. on Sept. 30, as the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was shaking up investors on six continents, President Nicolas Sarkozy convened an emergency meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris to broker the bailout of French-Belgian bank Dexia SA. For an hour, he grilled Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer on the terms of the 6.4 billion euro rescue plan, says François Perol, Sarkozy’s economic adviser.

One of his top requirements: Dexia Chief Executive Officer Axel Miller must leave and forfeit his 3.7 million euro severance paycheck.

With that gesture, Sarkozy, who took office pledging to instill a work-hard, get-rich ethos in a country known for its disdain for money, turned into something more familiar to the French: a politician who intervenes in private companies, subsidizes jobs and bashes the bosses.

“By conveying the message that the state can do better than free markets, Nicolas Sarkozy is appealing to the French’s old instinct for protection,” says Philippe Waechter, chief economist at Natixis Asset Management in Paris. “He seems to be turning his back on his reformist agenda meant to give the French economy more inner resilience.”

Sarkozy, 53, began his presidency in May 2007 as an outspoken admirer of billionaire industrialists. He celebrated his election with his wife, former fashion model Cecilia Ciganer- Albeniz, on the 60-meter-long (197-foot-long) yacht of Vincent Bollore, who built a transportation empire that operates ports in Africa and distributes oil products in Europe. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a1h2BUaxX.wM&refer=home