All The French President's Cronies: The Sarkozy Dream Team (MAM, Fillon & The Stooges). Vox Clamans Per Orbem : French Citizens

All The French President's Cronies: The Sarkozy Dream Team (MAM, Fillon & The Stooges).

Vox Clamans Per Orbem : French Citizens Have decided to Oust France’s President Sarkozy.

Quelques extraits de journaux pour rompre la surdité gouvernementale qui n’a manifestement pas bien compris ce que le monde entier lui dit : Démissionnez !

Par Renaud Bouchard

Readers, French citizens! Buckle up, put your seatbacks and tray tables in an upright position and get ready for interesting excerpts of foreign newspapers. You are just in time for the new flying season in French politics. Ready? Start!

UMP deputes have already applauded Mrs Alliot-Marie whose case, while the most egregious, is on the same continuum. The refusal to accept responsibility, sense of entitlement and complacency is shared in each case. Yes, it's slightly tiresome being criticized by the press and the have-nots whose resentments it represents, but that will be short-lived and the only price they'll have to pay. And being disliked by those one disdains is finally no great hardship. "We've got it coming to us and we don't care what anyone thinks," they seem to say amongst themselves. For this state elite, conscience and decency are quaint superstitions with which only losers console themselves. Aren't all the benefits (not just these petty ones) that are made available to them the point of being there in the first place? After all, they believe they're paid far less than they think they are worth.

 “It is a scene worthy of a Graham Greene novel. European ministers of state jet around exotic African destinations on holidays courtesy of the local strongmen, while the oppressed masses start marching for their revolution.”

“Except this is not fiction; it is the reality swirling around French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his corruption-prone ministers.”

“First Foreign Affairs Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and now "cleanskin" Prime Minister Francois Fillon have been forced to admit having taken their Christmas vacations en famille in North Africa.”

“The bling-loving Sarko has certainly taken the notion of the French president as a republican "king" to new heights. Since his 2007 election win, the President has been unable to shake his compulsion to live like a Hollywood star, or billionaire mogul.”

“This year Sarkozy flouted his own dictate to ministers - to travel wherever possible by train for official business - when he took not one but two of his "Sarko Air" state jets to Brussels. The fact that the European capital is less than 1 1/2 hours from Paris on the Thalys fast train did not matter. Perhaps it is time the French President learned the Anglo-Saxon lesson of responsible government and sacked some of his ministers.”

“While that scenario would be unthinkable in many countries, in France some top figures have made a habit of planning their vacations around the largesse of foreign governments or influential tycoons.”

“Still, critics pointed to the ill-timed trip as evidence of Alliot-Marie's cozy relations with Ben Ali and suggested those relations were why she was slow to speak out in support of anti-government protesters. Alliot-Marie also came under fire during the protests for offering French police know-how to Tunisian security forces, while the death toll of demonstrators killed by Tunisian police mounted.”

“The opposition called on her to resign, but she has resisted.”

“Fillon stood by Alliot-Marie, but soon found himself in the same tight spot, as this week's Le Canard Enchaine ran a cover story about his own holiday getaway to Egypt. Fillon acknowledged late Tuesday that the Egyptian government provided his family free lodging, a plane flight and an outing on the Nile during the Dec. 26-Jan. 2 vacation in Egypt. »

“A government minister taking a sun-and-sea getaway paid by an unsavory autocrat? While that scenario would be unthinkable in many countries, in France some top figures have made a habit of planning their vacations around the largesse of foreign governments or influential tycoons. But the long-standing practice has come under scrutiny following revelations that the French prime minister took a family holiday funded by Egypt's government, and the foreign minister vacationed in Tunisia amid violent anti-government protests there.”

Sources:

http://www.newser.com/article/d9l99r5o0/amid-holiday-controversy-frances-sarkozy-tells-ministers-to-vacation-closer-to-home.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/time-for-french-to-holiday-at-home/story-e6frg6zo-1226003183495

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110209/API/1102090612

http://artgoldhammer.blogspot.com/