Angela Merkel was asked what she thought of the French president’s tantrum two weeks ago at a dinner in the Elysée palace in the presence of twenty-four heads of state. It had been suggested that his deportation of the Roma was reminiscent of certain events in WW2. She said, “The food was very good.”
There has been other evidence that Sarkozy is moving to the right. The Financial Times of September 18 also noted his “more bombastic tone towards Europe.” “Though he is seen as energetic and determined,” the paper wrote, “he is also perceived to be clannish, authoritarian, impulsive and vulgar. He is in fact reverting to type. He has always been regarded as a right-winger.”
Why has this become so evident recently? The strong showing of the far-right National Front in the regional elections in March set alarm bells ringing. This week’s election in Holland no doubt strengthens the impression that not only the Dutch windmills are tilting towards the right. Sarkozy may have no option but to follow the direction of the wind. Moreover, feedback from his party’s grassroots suggests that this is the way to go. To be re-elected in 2012 Sarkozy must re-assemble the political coalition spanning the centre to the far right that brought him to power in 2007.
However, at the same time, the Socialist opposition is growing. In the Roma issue, according to Jean-Daniel Levy of the CSA polling group, the longer the controversy drags on, the greater the risks for Sarkozy. “Today 48 percent are in favour of dismantling the camps and 42 percent are against it. A few weeks ago people looked on this far more favorably.”
“Playing to his conservative base,” says Professor Zaki Laidi of Sciences Po, “is entirely predictable, but it is also a potential weakness. He is doing exactly what his opponents expect and, for the left, that is very good.”
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
There are many on the right who feel Sakrozy’s policies are moving left. Those are his economic policies; he has not suceeded in any market reforms, has taken to attacking Anglo Saxon capitalism and is left to push the retirement age up to 62 over the next decade.
But everyone will have to admit that deporting undesirables is a specialité of the right.
Considering the number of monuments scattered around Paris and throughout France dedicated to the memory of the “déportés de la deuxième guerre” which honors French resistance fighters, army veterans, forced labor battalions, as well as communists, Jews and Gypsies, Sarkozy must think that the French have lost their sense of history. Of course, there is now another generation for whom these monuments may not have much resonance. Still there is something deeply anti-republican about this.
Of course.
Of course, the deportation of the Roma is reminiscent of the “deuxieme guerre”. But the failure to assimilate the Roma is a cultural problem for all states where there is a sizable population of Roma. I am glad I don’t have to solve this problem.