Sarkozy divorce news outweighs strike

[Flabbergasted]

Source: LA Times

Sarkozy divorce news outweighs strike
By Geraldine Baum, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 19, 2007


PARIS -- On the same day that a massive strike crippled public transportation here, President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, announced the end of their marriage.

Others, however, attempted to right the priorities of the country. "Today, the main news isn't the divorce," Francois Hollande, head of the Socialist Party, told local media. "It's a strike that had a considerable following and which gave hope that after this movement there might be some real negotiation."

Hollande may have reason to sympathize with Sarkozy: His own partnership with Segolene Royal, the former Socialist presidential candidate, came to a media-saturated end not long after she lost the election in May.

Almost all the men in Sarkozy's government who were asked about their boss' divorce recoiled: The president of the Senate, Christian Poncelet, a member of Sarkozy's center-right party, said: "I don't care about private life. It's not my business. I already have a hard time dealing with mine."

Sarkozy's union opponents shared the sentiment: "The president is a man and he has a wife, and this is their private business and it's nothing to do with the country's business," said Gerard Aschieri, a labor leader

On both fronts, public and personal, the president remained silent Thursday.




Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-sarkozy19oct19,1,4369460.story?coll=la-news-a_section

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Prediction: Sarkozy will resign in shame before his term is over. A little early to tell but his presidency so far has had problems and combined with his coziness with Bush foreign policy he will go down in flames.

[central scrutinizer]

1. paging Paris Hilton

You are needed as a distraction stat.

[LeftyMom]

2. "The president is a man and he has a wife, and this is their private business..."

And that's an opponent.

I wish our politicians has that kind of class.

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. 'Family values' isn't part of French political discourse

in the same manner as here. French people care deeply about family and decency, but that doesn't extend to prudery or invasion of privacy. Hence there is no political hay to be made from that.