It's hard to believe that anyone could long for the good old days of Jacques Chirac, but when President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the Agriculture Fair in Paris a few days ago, he managed to remind the French how comfortable they used to feel with his lanky,

Just to answer to Anne_C...nobody deserve a bad president!your reaction is really puerile.Bush and Sarkosy are deeply different , they just are both ridiculous .One good thing about France: Sarkosy has only been elected  since few month and french people already know they do not want him as a president if he is still actinc like that, but american people elected Bush twice!you can mistake one time, the second time is masochism!sorry for this provocation, Anne, but THIS, you derserve it!

Our French friends deserve Sarkozy. For the past seven years, they have made fun of us Americans for having elected a 'fascist' president [their words, not mine!!!]  What goes around, come around!

WE ALL KNOW THAT EUROpEANS are the most anti semetic racist citizens on earth.

ANTI SEMETIcisM HAS BEEN INSTITIUTIONALIZED IN EUROpE FOR THE LAST THOUSAND yEARS.

UNFORUNATELy anti semiticism is gaining momentum once again in GERMANy and FRANCE.

WHAT ABOUT SWITZERLAND ONE OF THE MOST neutral countries in the WORLD STILL protects NAZI ACCOUNTS THAT CONTAIN THE MONEy and assets STOLEN FROM HOLOCAUST VICTIMS.

SWITZERLAND< FRANCE, RUSSIA AND GERMANy are never mentioned by ISRAEL.

WHy

In defense or Mr. Sarkosy, I would remind those who would criticize him that all he was trying to do was to instill in those children the importance of memory; and in remembrance it is hoped that we will never forget.

Sarkozy actually is not matured enough in diplomacy. He doesn't know what he is doing and what he is talking about. As for his knowledge in "holocaust" I presume that it is near to nothing! He is also not in touch with reality and with the French people. There goes also his zeal to change the world single-handedly and trying to make France more dominant in the EU politics.He also got carried away by his honeymoon mood since he has just been married!

"Trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C" : A reader of Le Monde has another interpretation. According to her, "twinning" with holocaust victims is performed by some Israeli children during the religious ceremony of Bar-Mitzvah :

Eve Line Blum-Cherchevsky, from Besancon :"Ce projet de Nicolas Sarkozy n'est pas de lui et il n'a rien inventé" second item at : http://www.lemonde.fr/web/articleinteractif/0,41-0@2-823448,49-1013341@45-4951@51-861150,0.html

As she understands this ceremony as being a religious one, she disagrees for it to be performed as a part of a compulsory school activity.

Sarkozy's son Jean is running for "conseiller général", and this is more than a mere "council seat" in a city. If he wins he will be one of the 45 member Assembly of Hauts-de-Seine, often said to be the most wealthy of the 100 or so French departements, having a say in the spending of really huge amounts of money.