Sarkozy Mark II

The little dictator is at it again. Not only did he manage to get his son by his first marriage, Jean, a job as a councilor on his old mayoral patch in a fancy part of Paris but now he’s trying to force him onto the La Défense district (pictured) as chairman.

OK – so what’s wrong with a bit of nepotism here and there? Let me tell you what’s wrong with it. First of all, Jean is still at school (ok – university). And secondly, he’s never had a proper job, which is probably an obvious statement, given that he’s still at kindergarten. The guy is 23 for goodness sake and Sarko is trying force him into a job, against the establishment’s wishes, where he’ll be running the biggest financial district in Europe outside London’s Canary Wharf.

I’ve worked in La Défense. All the big firms are there. BT, IBM, Honeywell. The big consultancies. The big hotels. It’s like Canary Wharf in that it’s a city in its own right with a Gross Domestic Product bigger than many developed countries.

It’s not a particularly great place to work but it’s a lot closer to central Paris than Canary Wharf is to central London and there’s no getting away from it, when you work there, you know you’re at the centre of something big and important. The same feeling you get when you work in the City (of London) or Manhatten.

So what is Sarkozy thinking about? I reckon it’s him having a go at the ‘establishment’ again. He’s well known for it. Most of France’s top business leaders and its civil servant mandarins have attended the École nationale d'administration (ENA), France's highly selective post-graduate school. If you go there, you’re made. It’s like a ‘club’ and to prove how selective it is, the ENA produces fewer than 90 graduates a year.

Sarko never went to the ENA and after being elected, he ensured that unlike French governments of the past which had battalions of ENA alumni in the most senior posts, he would promote ‘normal’ people, friends and acolytes to the new government.

Forcing his son into one of France’s most important jobs is just another example of his attempt to stuff the establishment but he’s coming under significant pressure on this one. The ridiculous nature of the proposed appointment has even got the French public up in arms and Sarkozy’s popularity rating has plummeted since his high following the G7 and G20 summits.

This is one to follow.