The Break: Disappointment of Intellectuals Who in 2007 Were Enthused by Sarkozy's Pro-American and Pro-Israeli Views

During the campaign for the 2007 presidential election, some of the most media-savvy intellectuals regarded to be on the "Left", whose shared background includes the break with Marxism, the focus on the dissidents of the former communist bloc, the denunciation of totalitarianism, and the desire of an active France in the struggle against dictatorships and massacres, rallied more or less explicitly to that atypical candidate of the right.

Thus begins the paper by Marion Van Renterghem in Le Monde on the "small informal group of leftist intellectuals who in 2007 had shown or hinted at their political sympathy for candidate [Nicolas] Sarkozy, [and who] today have another point in common: in various ways and to varying degrees, the president has been a disappointment."

Nicolas Sarkozy, against all odds, was suddenly speaking their language. He promised "the break" with old-fashioned ideologies such as a French diplomacy filled with anti-Americanism, mechanically critical of Israel, in empathy with the Arab régimes, complacent regarding Russian nationalism, careless of human rights in the name Realpolitik.

More excerpts on Le Monde Watch…

FYI, the pro-Western intellectuals' magazine is called Le Meilleur des mondes, a periodical named by Alain Finkielkraut as a homage to Aldous Huxley and his anti-utopianism…