Word: french
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...French President Nicolas Sarkozy—renegade Gallic right-winger and scourge of les pouvoirs-qui-sont—campaigned on an image as the ruthless reformer of a defunct bureaucracy and a law and order fanatic. As Minister of the Interior, he rejected the liberal elite’s Chamberlain-complaisance amid the swells of exurban civil unrest, denouncing the young, disaffected, and largely Arab agitators as “racaille” (rabble), an inflammatory move many considered imprudent...
...presidency has thus far been rather tranquil, at least on the political front; most of his promised reforms have wilted before the French Leviathan. The real story has been of the prurient tabloid variety: Sarkozy’s romantic liaison and subsequent marriage to Italian supermodel Carla Bruni. As the two gallivanted around Paris and jetted to the Middle East, Europeans were titillated. Americans, by contrast, looked on in disbelief as Sarkozy flaunted his extramarital relationship with a gorgeous diva, the former lover of Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, and Donald Trump, who openly boasts of her “preference?...
...politics of the nation were debated and decided by the French people in the spring of 2007," said Prime Minister Fran?ois Fillon after first-round polls closed Sunday, leaving his fellow conservatives in difficulty against leftist rivals in key cities across France. "What is now at stake is the management of our cities, our villages, and our departments ... next Sunday, the values of general interest, of work, of security and solidarity should be expressed in our local democracy...
...Fillon's statement epitomizes the efforts by French conservatives to "de-Sarkocize" municipal elections that offered voters their first chance to express themselves since the President's approval rating went into free fall. Even before Sunday's results, many conservative candidates had sought to disassociate their campaigns from the increasingly unpopular President. Several removed references to Sarkozy and even the name of his Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party from their campaign posters and literature, and many declined presidential offers to stump on their behalf...
...French conservatives did score some significant victories in the initial round of voting: Former Prime Minister Alain Jupp?, for example, won the mayor's job in Bordeaux, just nine months after he suffered a stunning upset for the city's parliamentary seat - a loss that made him ineligible to serve in the national government. Fifteen of the 22 members of Fillon's cabinet of 33 who were on Sunday's municipal ballots either won first-round victories, or were in strong positions for the runoff. Still, the left appears to have done well by trading on the increasing unpopularity...