Nepotism: Sarkozy’s True Color

It should be now increasingly clear for French people that President Nicolas Sarkozy is constantly overreaching at the edge or even outside the legal boundaries of his public office in order to satisfy his insatiable quest for power and financial gains for himself, his political allies, and of course the members of his own family. All of it is done with no or little regard for the common good, and it should make any observer wonder if France is turning into a Banana Republic.

In the latest scandal, Sarkozy has positioned Jean, his 23-year-old son, to have the top position at La Defense, which is France largest business district. Jean Sarkozy has no qualification whatsoever, except the one of being the son of the President. Jean is currently in his second year of law school, and has obviously not completed a university degree. Yet, thanks to his father pulling the strings, he is more or less a shoe in to head EPAD. EPAD is a public corporation which brings in more than 1 billion Euros a year, and has plans to triple its activities in La Defense, a cluster of office sky-scrappers situated at the West of Paris.

“For Europe’s biggest business district we need a very good legal expert, and Monsieur Sarkozy is already in his second year of law school. That is a very, very impressive qualification,” said former Socialist Prime Minister Laurent Fabius with irony.

Monday night, a flurry of sarcastic “endorsements” for Jean Sarkozy started on twitter under jeansarkozypartout (Jean Sarkozy is everywhere).

Today, as the political and media row escalated over his son’s imminent appointment to manage France’s top business district, President Sarkozy said that his son had been “thrown to the wolves”. When asked to comment on the current political and media storm brewing over the nomination the President said:“It is never right for someone to be thrown to the wolves without reason and in an excessive manner.” This sudden display of sensitivity is ironic coming from someone as ruthless as Sarkozy.