On Sunday evening Nicolas Sarkozy delivered a five-minute address to the French people in which he attempted to explain the reasons for the parliamentary vote that ratified the Treaty of Lisbon. He said that “As a result of this success, and it is a success, France is back in Europe.”

The president also explained why there had not been a referendum: “In order to convince all of our partners to accept this new simplified treaty that we were proposing, which was no longer a Constitution, it was necessary to commit ourselves to an approval by parliamentary vote. [...] If this condition had not been fulfilled no agreement would have been possible.”

After delivering his brief attempt at self-justification, Sarkozy flew to French Guyana. There, at the French space base of Kourou, he revealed plans for a European Union mission to Mars. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports that Sarkozy pledged a “coherent and reasoned strategy” for a European space policy. He said that the exploration of Mars “can only be global,” and should not be the prerogative of any one nation. He said that France’s space infrastructure in Guyana should be available to all EU members.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Sarkozy’s spokesman, David Martinon, who was running for mayor of Neuilly, where Sarkozy was once mayor, has been forced out of the race by his running-mates, including Jean Sarkozy, son of the president.

There had been much dissent and resentment towards Martinon from the start, many accusing Sarkozy of “parachuting” him into the Neuilly race where he was not the preferred choice of the local chapter of Sarkozy’s UMP party. Martinon, a “protégé” of Cécilia, the president’s second wife whom Sarkozy divorced last October, never managed to forge a credibility of his own and became an object of mockery.

In order to force him out, Jean Sarkozy, the son of the president’s first marriage, and others created a separate UMP ticket of their own, which has the approval of the president. Martinon had no choice but to quit the race. He did not accompany the president to Guyana.