What to Think of Sarkozy?

A quote from Tiberge (of galliawatch.blogspot.com) at Lawrence Auster’s blog, 10 November 2007

Sarko and Bush SEEM conservative compared to Segolene Royal or Hillary Clinton. […] But Sarkozy feels guilty for being even ten percent conservative! Otherwise why would he hire so many socialists, and grovel before Islam, and date (I think) a Muslim woman, and rush into the EU treaty despite his campaign promises, and cleverly help Turkey into the EU, and all the rest? He makes small gestures, band-aid solutions, to look conservative but he's not. However, he's not a socialist either. […]

As for his meeting with the Jews, some French nationalists are acerbic about that because they see him as a lackey of the Washington-Israel axis, or whatever name they give it. This is what is so infuriating about certain French nationalists, whom I quote frequently. Their general ideas and values are fine and good, but there's this flaw – they hate America and Israel. So they hate Sarkozy doubly for his reaching out to us. And soon he will visit Israel! This will be seen as another act of betrayal by the nationalists. (Note: there are different types of nationalists – not all are anti-US/Israel.) And in this respect I'm on Sarkozy's side. He's a head of state, he's supposed to visit different countries. To mock him for coming here or going to Jerusalem is ridiculous, and endangers the whole patriotic cause in France.

But at the same time he is aggressively pro-Islam. He has created several government institutions that give Islamic leaders great power, thus endangering the country he claims to be protecting. […] I think he is a weak man with strong contradictory convictions. Part of him wishes he could be a true traditionalist. But the other part is afraid of the left and of Islam. He cannot admit his fear, and he just keeps making promises and band-aid solutions that can never make a dent in the French crises.