The recent level of Sarkophobia in the French media is unprecedented

The Economist's Élysée blog has a post on The rise of Sarkophobia:

Nicolas Sarkozy chase [of] the National Front vote ahead of Sunday’s second round … is unpleasant and divisive stuff, even if, arithmetically, Mr Sarkozy has nowhere else than the National Front to go for votes. But to jump from this to a comparison with Marshall Pétain, France’s collaborationist leader during the second world war, shows just how unrestrained the anti-Sarkozy feeling among some people has become. L’Humanité, a communist daily whose influence is greater than its 51,000 circulation would suggest, last week ran a cover likening Mr Sarkozy to Pétain … Jean-Luc Mélenchon has accused Mr Sarkozy of using language “directly taken from the collaboration” with Vichy France.

The recent level of Sarkophobia in the French media is unprecedented. L’Express has compiled a series of anti-Sarkozy front pages that makes this point visually. Among them you can find stories about Mr Sarkozy entitled “The Yob of the Republic”, or “The Shame of the Fifth Republic” (both from Marianne).