Son of Sarko makes his first kill

Jean Sarkozy is tallish and blond while his father is short and dark, but a minute with him is enough to see that the President's son is a chip off the old block. The shrugs, charm and verbal tics of the 21-year-old student are pure Sarko.  France has just discovered that shy Jean is just as fast as Dad with the dagger.

Sarko junior, the second son by the President's first marriage, with Marie Culioli, a Corsican chemist, has done his father's dirty work and performed the political execution of David Martinon, the Presidential spokesman.

Six months ago Sarkozy senior anointed Martinon, a 36-year-old technocrat, as the next boss of Neuilly, the opulent town on the western edge of Paris which he ran as Mayor for 19 years. Sarko came in person one evening to Neuilly to launch Martinon on his campaign for next month's municipal election. The president was in effect handing his dauphin a golden throne for his political debut.

But the rich and very Sarkoziste people of Neuilly rebelled at this parachutage and Martinon blew his chances with an inept campaign. His handshake was limp on his outings on the market square. He made a fool of himself at rallies, where hecklers chanted "Martinon-non-non". He blew it by calling for the vote of "les vieux" (the old people) -- a gaffe in a borough full of senior citizens. By last week, the unthinkable happened. An anti-Martinon -- but still pro-Sarkozy  -- dissident overtook the president's candidate in an opinion poll.

So yesterday, young Jean, a lifelong Neuilly resident, joined a couple of local councillors in public rebellion against le Sarko-boy from the Elysée Palace. Everyone assumes that the President gave the order for Martinon's humiliation.

[picture: Jean Sarkozy looks down on David Martinon.] 

Until this month, the law student and amateur actor was known as Scooter Sarko because of his misadventures with his personal transport. Last year the full forensic might of the state was deployed to track down the Piaggio when it was stolen by youths from a tough housing estate. Last autumn, Jean was hauled into the criminal court by a driver who claimed that he ran off after colliding with and damaging his new BMW. The case is pending.

France had also heard that Jean is something of an actor and musician, like Pierre, 23, his rap-producing big brother who goes by the DJ name of Mosey . Jean's political talent was revealed last month when the media turned its gaze on the electoral fiasco in Sarkoville, as Neuilly is known.

Jean had been sent in at first to help save Martinon. While the spokesman continued to stumble around, Jean emerged as a star,  glad-handing the voters and working the doorsteps like a pro. At les Sablons the main open-air market, he sampled the produce and swapped jokes, while Martinon played the haughty fonctionnaire. "I just want to be able to help the people of Neuilly," Jean told me last week as he strolled around the town. He normally refuses to talk to journalists but he took me for a voter, respectfully calling me Monsieur as he chatted about how pleased he was that his Dad had remarried and would now settle down after some rough months.

When the polls turned against Martinon last weekend, it was clear that Sarko senior would pull the plug and sacrifice his hapless spokesman. Losing his fiefdom would be too much at a time when France has already gone sour on its super-president.

So Jean and two senior councillors from the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy's party, announced on Sunday that they were deserting Martinon after deep disagreements and were presenting a rival list of candidates. Martinon withdrew this morning and offered his resignation as spokesman. Sarkozy, who is in Guyana, refused. Jean it seems is not running for Mayor of Dad's town, but placed near the top of the list, he can be sure of winning his first elective office as a councillor next month.

It is worth noting that Martinon is also the victim of palace intrigue. He was the protegé of Cécilia Ciganer, who gave up her job as Mrs Sarkozy last October. Sarkozy handed Neuilly to Martinon at a moment when he was doing everything to win Cécilia's favour. After the divorce, Sarkozy's support for his long-serving staff member has waned and rivals have been gunning for him.

The ousting of Martinon from Neuilly and, probably soon from the Elysée, is part of an attempt by Sarko to reassert his authority after the beating he has taken over the past month. Another sign was a bizarre television appearance last night. He popped up with a solemn address from the palace to welcome France's ratification of the new European Treaty, which took place last Thursday. For a country obsessed with rising prices and turned off by the President's exhibition of his private life, a lecture on the spirit of Europe suggested that Sarko was out of touch.

Inevitably, the opposition have been piling in over the Neuilly fiasco.
Here is François Bayrou, the centrist who came third in the presidential election:

"This is a sort of soap opera in which the real subject is the royal court: What's going on in court, who is in the inner circle, who is the favourite, who is in disgrace, who is going to be promoted and who rejected? This is deeply unhealthy, just as it is deeply unhealthy to believe that a town belongs to one man or a clan." 

Comments

[Daniel Strohl]

Charles,

"He normally refuses to talk to journalists but he took me for a voter, respectfully calling me Monsieur"

Hum ... The Times is a paper known by at least a few (French) residents of Neuilly - may be also by young Jean. The latter appears to be through your article and some other sources as well rather quick minded and already working like a pro. But may be he does not like FRENCH journalists.

[dot king]

This was bound to happen. When Cécilia left, I think Martinon's fate was sealed, it was just a matter of time - I'm pretty sure I posted to that effect when the divorce was the subject here.

I also said that Martinon should have resigned after Sarkozy humiliated him in front of the whole world when he walked out of the interview with the US interviewer, calling him an "imbécile".
Martinon has always come across as inept, unsure of himself, unable to occupy his own space somehow, and yet, when he was a guest on Le Grand Journal, he came across as sympa et aimable, and was able to laugh in auto-dérision at their "Point Martinon" which has become a feature (though not for much longer perhaps).
He obviously is not cut out for a job in public communication and no amount of wanting to retain an erring wife should have put him there;
The ultimate humiliation in this affair is the refusal of his resignation as Elysée spokesperson - it will have to intervene at some point, in the meantime, how can he speak for someone who openly treats him with such contempt - by "someone" I mean both the man and the institution. And to have his own son deal the blow comes into the category "contemptible" JMHO.

[Helen]

Can't wait for this evening's "Point Martinon".

[Juliette]

I don't think he ever really stood a chance. He has the political charisma of a turtle. If you're over 50, you can hide it, pretending to be wise, but under 40, you just come off as an idiot. He couldn't even pretend to have grown up in that town. As a commenter on the website Rue89 wrote "On ne pourra plus dire qu'un hamtser avec un badge UMP peut être élu à Neuilly."
That being said, I'm not a big fan of Jean Sarkozy either. He's starting the betrayal game even earlier than his father did...

[rockinred]

Great commentary Charles, thanks. This is all taking on quite 'Sopranos'-like dimensions...

[dada]

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=gsuKEPQAI4Q

[Tom Foster]

"He normally refuses to talk to journalists but he took me for a voter, respectfully calling me Monsieur"

Perhaps he looked at you and your colleagues and saw 'Three reporters . . and a gentleman from the Times"?

[Emily]

All this Sarkozy stuff is just so boring so how about the truth on Ayaan Hirsi Ali for a future post, please! I am confusted and I really want to read it in English.

Is she for real and should my tax dollars go towards protecting her?

[azloon]

Young Gun Sarko:

kickin' ass and takin' names.

right awn..

[MCG]

Hear! Hear! Ayaan Hirsi Ali, please.

MCG

[christopher muir]

What next? France really seems to have elected an extremely revengeful ruler. This can't be good for the smooth operations of any democratic system. How can the sum total of these frequent score-settlings not end unhappily? One day The Revenger's Tragedy will be witnessed.

[dot king]

"how about the truth on Ayaan Hirsi Ali . . . . Is she for real and should my tax dollars go towards protecting her?"
(Emily)

Good idea - I think she's for real, but she doesn't meet at least one of the criteria for obtaining French nationality - she doesn't speak a word of French. She has most of the French intelligentsia on her side, which depending where you're coming from is either a huge advantage or the kiss of death.
Last week BHL was the guest on Nicolas De Moran's 7-10 on Inter, and he was asked what has to be the winner in the silly-questions-so- far-in-2008 competition: "This young woman is living in the strictest clandestinity; where exactly is she?" There was a slight pause before BHL said she was living "somewhere" in the USA.
She is being gven a lot of TV exposure at present in France, always with an earpiece and an interpreter - the other evening she was accompanied by Rama Yade who said (joking, she said after, but it's fatal once it's out) that she could always marry a Frenchman to obtain French nationality. Ms Ali looked suitably aghast I thought. ;}

On subject a moment, it seems that Jean Sarkozy isn't to be tête de liste in Neuilly - well at least they won't have a mayor with zits!

[Doremi]

He's that the son Sarkosi was thinking of off-loading to Chinese official to learn some discipline during the China Trip?
I think Sarkosi-father has his best interest at hands. In France, overbearing parents of children deemed not to bright used do everything to get them to be fonctionnaires, so once in the job they couldn't be fired and the question of their future would no longer give their parents sleepless night. Maybe it's still happening. If these children accept the ugly deal these parents make for them, they are usually quite malleable and weak and pass whatever frustration at their inadequacies on the people below them. It's not easy to be the son of a paranoid-narcissist.

[Rocket]

Where is Carla? Now ZIP! We saw nothing but her before the wedding and now nothing. Could the media be getting cold feet for fear of being sued?

PS -I'm thinking of leading a commando group to liberate the airports. Anybody interested?

[nicolas]

The Times used to like Sarkozy if i remember well?! I mean when he has been elected! So what about now?! that prooves one thing, what you write on the newspapers is sometimes some pure rubish.

[Merci, Nicolas. Les opinions peuvent toujours évoluer, n'est-ce pas? Je ne vois pas comment cela constitue une preuve de "rubbish". Thank you for reading anyway. CB]

[dot king]

"PS -I'm thinking of leading a commando group to liberate the airports. Anybody interested?"
(Rocket)

I could fly up from Toulouse, but would they let me land?

[richard jones]

Now, if M. le président de la République was to marry Ayaan Hirsi Ali and 'Charlie Brown' - Carla Bruni - was to sue the paparazzi for intrusion into her wedding ceremony which was officiated over by Jean Sarko in disguise (as Napoleon II)and Neuilly was turned into a nature park and filled with whales to stop the Japanese from culling them, and Trichet has a Valentinian brain storm and reduces the ECB rate by 2.00% next Saturday when all the markets are closed. Now wouldn't that be a lot of fun and about as useful for France as Sarko and his sick côterie are today. Never, ever did I think I would say this but comeback Chiraq all is forgiven.

[Doremi]

ROCKET,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZVFtPvn26M

[elena]

the author of this article is extremely biased , and this makes his article lose a lot in credibility.
[Thank you, Elena. Bias is in the eye of the beholder, surely. CB]

[jopo]

It seems to me Elena and Nicolas should get together to complain about The Times and its journalists between themselves. .....

[Valentin]

Is it only my impression, or Charles is getting more and more involved here? He makes his own transition from Chirac to Sarkozy :))

[john o'doe]

Blood on the walls as the Sarkoville Saga goes on! Arnaud Teullé UMP has broken away from local overlord Devedjian's non-UMP stitch up. Devedjian had better watch out because Sarko is on the way back from his canoe trip in Guyane and will hang him on a meat hook for mishandling the whole sorry mess.
On the radio this morning before this latest twist in the story, Devedjian made me laugh with "Neuilly, vous savez, c'est une ville difficile". He didn't know how right he was.

[dot king]

"the author of this article is extremely biased , and this makes his article lose a lot in credibility" elena

Elena, what's the true story then behind this?
From everything I've seen and heard, this article tells everything that happened in Neuilly, over the weekend and up to going to press, in the same way as every other media support - Tv, radio, other online newspapers - has done, except that Charles got to speak to Jean Sarkozy whereas other journalists didn't.
Could you tell us the story in your own unbiased way please?

[dot king]

According to what I hear today, Neuilly now has to choose between two right wing lists - the Devedjian recommended one (diverse droite) after a night's discussion, and Sarkozy junior's friend who helped oust Martinon.

Oooh, and I thought it was exciting where I live! Hecky thump!

Looking forward to seeing and hearing Christophe Barbier this evening - I believe he's presenting (has he written it?) a new book about Carla Bruni. (Inevitable, but perhaps we can just look at the pictures.)
Remembering the excitement with which he announced, in a video clip for l'Express, that she and the president were "an item" and that above all she should carry on singing - I'm interested to see what angle he takes on this.
He's been somewhat more critical of presidential behaviour since then - anyone know where he's coming from?

And what does anyone think of her new song - something like "mon mec c'est ma came, je le roule et je le fume". Surely that can't go down well with traditional right-wing voters? (Assuming they understand the lyrics :))
Sometimes I think it's deliberate sabotage - in which case I approve. Ho-ho! ;0

[dot king]

Nicolas: c'est les infos aussi qui évoluent. Après les élections il y avait beaucoup de monde qui pensait que Sarkozy représentait un espoir pour la France.
Quelques uns peuvent avoir changé d'avis - ce journal nous tient au courant de ce qui se passe. Ce n'est pas une question d'aimer ou ne pas aimer, mais une question de raconter les événements de jour en jour.
Il doit être de plus en plus difficile d'être positif et admiratif en ce qui concerne Sarkozy.

[dot king]

Where is Carla? Now ZIP! (Rocket)

Dans la cuisine - elle fait des pâtes! Quelle question!