The French constitution of the 5th Republic states:
"the equality before the law of all citizens regardless of origin, race or religion".
Now take:
Struggling in the opinion polls after his government was implicated in a financial scandal and in the wake of a spate of violent unrest, Sarkozy announced a headline-grabbing package of security measures.
Yet Sarkozy ranted:
""Nationality should be stripped from anyone of foreign origin who deliberately endangers the life of a police officer, a soldier or a gendarme or anyone else holding public authority,"
The evil little shit is letting his extreme right wing tendencies show, he is desperately trying to appeal to the Le Pen supporting part of the population.
Then again you may think he is right
But when the state is seen to be violent and oppressive:
The CRS are riot police and have been involved in the use of excessive force on so many occasions I and many others are fed up of hearing lame excuses for their actions. They have often incited the violence themselves and sending them to move women and children from a squat is the height of stupidity.
Sarkozy is deep in the heart of the Bettencourt scandal so his declaration of a
"War on crime"
to which he added
"We are suffering the consequences of 50 years of insufficiently regulated immigration which has led to a failure of integration,"
Just shows where his war is aimed.
This will assuage the fears of discrimination amongst the immigrant population I'm sure...oh jeez.
I remember talking to a friend a few days after he was elected as president and she said "his choice of ministers has given me hope", this was in reaction to his appointment of several 'left' wing figures. I replied "eventually he will let his true nature show".
His blatant appeal to the right by his rhetoric and actions is confirming my fears, when the going gets tough the weak get racist. For all his smiles and fawning before world leaders he remains nothing but a nasty little thug at heart.
Like the US we have about 30% of the population that will be delighted by this radical turn by the President.
Its going to be a long two years before we can get rid of him.
Note from Jérôme à Paris in the comments
You should add:
Recommended by: LaFeminista, Lupin, LEP, luckydog, dreamghost
that the background to this vile fearmongering is a major scandal engulfing one of his key ministers, ie the one in charge of "reforming" pensions (ie cutting them or making retirement age later or both), Eric Woerth.
Woerth was minister of the budget at the same time as he was the treasurer of UMP (Sarkozy's party) in charge in particular of fundraising - and his wife was working for the family office (ie wealth management team) of Liliane Bettancourt, France's richest person (she owns 30% of L'Oreal, the cosmetcis firm)
Bettancourt is embroiled in a nasty court fight with her daughter, and documents have started coming out - first that she was not quite paying her taxes in full (she actually lives in France and pays here taxes there, as oppossed to some other zillionaoires, so the amounts disputed are not that big compared to what she pays, but still), and second that she was liberally funding political parties on the right, through legal but dodgy schemes.
Woerth is caught in the scandal because (i) as minister for budget two years ago when the tax investigations were on, he could not ignore what was happening (and L'Oréal being a takeover target by a foreign company, Nestlé, would make the topic a strategic one for the government in any case), (ii) he was fundraising for UMP at the same time and (iii) he introduced his five to Bettancourt' finance manager around that time.
More dirt has been coming through (including direct donations, legal, but still, from Bettancourt to Woerth and claims of illegal donations to Sarkozy himself). Woerth's wife has resigned, Woerth has resigned from his job as treasurer of UMP, but Sarkozy wants him to hang on to his job as minister, because otherwise the pensions reform is dead (there will be a big fight in September in any case - expect big demonstrations then).
The dirt has been coming almost daily for 2 months, and follows other minor scandals where 2 ministers had to resign for blatant spending of public money (cigars bought by one on the public purse, a house built with a permit provided by a crony in a place it should not have gotten one by an other), reminding people of Sarkozy's unhealthy relationship to money and, more importantly, to people with money.
So the immigration / law'n'order pandering is a pretty pathetic attempt to distract voters.
Not sure it will work though, the backlash on his latest immigration/crime speech has been rather massive.