French President and bigoted jerk Nicolas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is trailing badly in the polls, and instead of going after centrist voters concerned about difficult issues (e.g. the economy), he’s pandering to the fringey types who are obsessed with blaming all their problems on people who aren’t ethnically French. Recently this has included a baffling series of statements regarding kosher and halal food (which aren’t really the #1 issue to most voters, obviously), promises to halve the rate of immigration, and a withdrawal of social services and protections to all immigrants.
Pretty sure this scheme is going to backfire, because the voters who care more about ethnic purity than not seeing their country be run into the ground through mismanagement are going to vote for the totally-detached-from-reality Marine Le Pen no matter what. The big beneficiary here is going to be Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, who is leading in the polls and won’t be affected by poll movement among deranged racists because they weren’t supporting him anyway.
(Source: Guardian)
